Media: TRN reviews Keyhole Mobile Computer

"Handhelds gain space" by Kimberly Patch in Technology Research News reports on a device that turns the small screen of a handheld computer into a 'movable keyhole'. Rather than pressing scroll buttons to get to a position in a document, a user simply moves the handheld computer.

The researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, Ka-Ping Yee, has produced a screen as a window onto a larger virtual document. To navigate to the lower left corner of an on-screen map, a user would move the computer in and to the left.

'The idea sprung from real-world frustration over the sluggishness of small-screen navigation. "I was motivated by wanting to position the view directly instead of having to wait for the view to scroll," Yee said.'

This is a substantial article on the development.
The research is scheduled for presentation at CHI 2003 in Fort Lauderdale as "Peephole Displays: Pen Interaction on Spatially Aware Handheld Computers" but read about it here first!

Associated Link: TRN: Handhelds gain space

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
Source: BBC, 12 March 2010
 
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The Net generation, Unplugged
Source: The Economist, 11 March 2010
 
Is it really helpful to talk about a new generation of "digital natives" who have grown up with the internet?

Rewriting the Human-Computer interaction Handbook
Source: CIOL, 10 March 2010
 
Indrani Medhi of Microsoft Research India has developed text-free user interfaces (UIs) to allow any illiterate or semi-literate person on first contact with a computer, to proceed with minimal or no assistance.

Lip reading Mobile promises End to noisy phone calls
Source: BBC, 9 March 2010
 
A prototype device shown off at CeBIT could allow people to conduct silent phone conversations.

Games User Researchers band together
Source: UN, 8 March 2010
 
The number of UX professionals in gaming has reached critical mass.

Quince Pro enables privately-held UX Design Libraries
Source: Infragistics, 6 March 2010
 
Infragistics has launched Quince Pro, a private, secure and organized way to collaborate, communicate and cultivate private UX design libraries to ensure consistent user experiences across teams, departments and companies.

Announcing a new issue of the Journal of Usability Studies
Source: UPA, 5 March 2010
 
UPA is happy to announce the publication of the second issue of volume 5, the Journal of Usability Studies.

Impatient versus Bored
Source: Gerry McGovern, 4 March 2010
 
Customers are much more likely to get impatient with your website than they are to be bored with it.

Futures Thinking: Writing Scenarios
Source: Fast Company, 3 March 2010
 
A valuable skill for UX folks (that's 'how to write scenarios', not 'scenarios in which one writes').

How to Conduct a Usability Review
Source: UsefulUsability, 2 March 2010
 
Never hurts to be reminded.