CHI ’08: Tomorrow’s Technology - Throbbing Phones and Squeaky Cheese

A treasure trove of CHI ’08 was the exhibition of interactivity, where tomorrow’s interfaces are displayed and demonstrated. Emerging technology is always a bit of a gamble and it’s not always clear where a particular innovation might find its niche, but that’s no reason not to try. The following gadgets represent the extremes of what was on show (follow the link for a few more).

PROBABLY USEFUL
- SnapAndGrab, developed by Andrew Maunder and Gary Marsden of the University of Cape Town; and Richard Harper of Microsoft Research, is a novel approach to interactions with a public information system. SnapAndGrab allows a user to select and download information by photographing a ‘visual download key’ (an image on a display) then sending that photo to the nearby SnapAndGrab box via Bluetooth. The submitted photo is processed and the media package associated with it is sent back to the user’s device. It’s clearly useful if you’re touring a town and want information about local sights, but the developers see it as a way to bring advanced technology to a community (South Africa) where PCs are thin on the ground but everyone has a mobile phone.

- Natural Interaction Sensitive Table: The SensitiveTable, developed by Alessandro Valli and Lorenzo Linari, both of iO, is a large multi-touch display that detects and tracks hands and objects in contact with it. Surface computing it’s not, but the software application framework allows the creation of quite compelling custom natural experiences. The table is equipped with array microphones and RFID antennas and runs a speaker-independent speech recognition engine.

- PaperProof: PaperProof, from Nadir Weibel, Adriana Ispas, Beat Signer, Moira C. Norrie, all of ETH Zurich, is a paper-digital proof-editing application that allows users to edit digital documents by means of gesture-based mark-up of their printed versions via a digital pen complete with tiny camera. By maintaining a logical mapping between the printed and digital instances, editing operations on paper can be integrated into the digital document, even if other users have edited the digital version in parallel. It’s a particularly exciting technology for a journalist to see in action, but would be equally compelling for anyone whose job entails reviewing other people’s reports and presentations.

- Spoken Words: Fabian Hemmert of Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, TU Berlin, Danijela Djokic and Reto Wettach, both of Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, introduced a prototype device enabling ‘listening with closed eyes’. The prototype combines text-to- speech software with Microsoft Word and a face tracking system. It detects when the user closes both eyes, which triggers it to read out the current sentence displayed in Microsoft Word. A great way to keep writing without disrupting your flow too much, and helpful for those who benefit from an auditory rendition of written text.

CURIOUS BUT INTRIGUING
- Dynamic knobs and throbbing phones: Developed by Fabian Hemmert and Gesche Joost of Deutsche Telecom Laboratories; and André Knörig and Reto Wettach of Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, the dynamic knob is literally a tactile knob on the side of a mobile phone. When a message is received or a call missed it pops out. To hear or read the message, simply press it slowly back in. It’s not that it’s a bad idea, but how does it improve on sound or text alerts as per conventional phones? And it’s a mechanical device: the knob is powered by its own motor which must be built into the phone – instantly restricting its size to ‘really quite large’ as mobile phones go. As a bit of extra fun, the researchers were also showing a phone whose vibrate capability is set permanently to throb like a beating heart. When calls come in, the pulse accelerates, presumably with digital excitement. It’s cute but a bit unnerving, like having a live animal in your pocket the whole time.

DOWNRIGHT WEIRD
- Gamelunch: No sensory modality is off-limits as far as HCI research is concerned, but the squeaky cheese shown off by Pietro Polotti, Stefano Delle Monache, Stefano Papetti and Davide Rocchesso, all of Università di Venice, was simply bizarre. Tongues were surely in cheeks as the demonstrator performed typical culinary actions, such as cutting and slicing cheese, dressing a salad, and pouring beverages. Each action was accompanied by a ‘sonic augmentation’ – squeaking, rattling, glugging – triggered by various kinds of sensors built into the table and cutlery, and a number of physically-based and dynamically synthesized sounds. It may well spark off some questions which turn out to be interesting, but meanwhile, the researchers could conclude little more than that squeaky cheese offers the user ‘contradictory and unexpected sound feedback, thus experiencing – per absurdum – the importance of environmental sounds in everyday-life acts.’

- Spyn: Just because I don’t knit doesn’t mean I don’t respect (or even envy) those who do. But Spyn had me stumped. Daniela Rosner and Kimiko Ryokai, of the University of California, Berkeley, were showing a system allowing knitters to virtually weave stories into their creations. Using the Spyn system, which comprises a mobile computing device with display screen, a large IR-enabled camera for video, image and sound capture and scanning, sensors for automatic data collection (a GPS device and rotary encoder), and yarn printed with invisible IR ink, a knitter can record, playback and share information involved in the creation of handknit products. Spyn uses patterns of infrared ink printed on yarn in combination with computer vision techniques to correlate locations in knitted fabric with events recorded during the knitting process. The concept is a little quaint in the first place, but the process of recording, transferring and relocating images and events is quite complex and laborious, and surely counter to the friendly, community knitting spirit it seeks to serve. You’d need a pretty big briefcase to cart it all around and probably half an hour to set it up, plus a good few minutes to record each event. I’m prepared to be proved wrong, but this seems rather woolly-headed.

Associated Link: Interactivity at CHI '08

All change at the top for System Concepts
Source: System Concepts Ltd, 3 July 2009
 
Leslie Fountain has been promoted to joint Managing Director of leading usability consultancy System Concepts.

Life in UCD immortalised in fiction: you couldn't make it up
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Sarah Herman's fictitious book on life in a user-centred design company has hit the shelves and The Guardian's book pages...

Interfaces Magazine - Issue 79: The Education Issue
Source: Interaction Group, 1 July 2009
 
The latest issue of Interfaces is now available as a free download from the Interaction Website.

Two new Behavioural research Tools from Noldus
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Tool updates make on-site behavioural data collection easier.

Cell Phones that Listen and Learn
Source: MIT Technology Review, 29 June 2009
 
New software tracks a user's behavior by monitoring everyday sounds.

Top Six Don’ts for Usability Testing
Source: FutureNow Inc., 27 June 2009
 
Six tips for creating quality usability tests to ensure useful feedback from testers.

Usability: ‘Lovely software. But I can’t work it’
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In a recent survey by Global Graphics, 77 per cent of office workers estimate they lose up to one hour a week because business software is difficult to use.

And what do you do?
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Most Doctors cite Usability as critical to Electronic Health Record Adoption
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It's all about 'meaningful use'.

Glossy monitors look good but can hurt
Source: QUT, 23 June 2009
 
A new advisory cites research which suggests high gloss monitors make users sit awkwardly.