Friday, January 28, 2011

Paper Reading # 4 - Layered Surveillance

Reference:
Celine Latulipe & Annabel Manning
CHI 2010, April 10–15, 2010, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Summary
This paper describes the use of art and technology to explore U.S. - Mexico border crossings and surveillance. Manning describes an interactive way to present her artwork with the help of technology. The purpose of using the technology is to provide the viewers with some control of the artwork. The two techniques that are described are interactive lenses work and  interactive layers work. Interactive lenses work portrays static images that are controlled by participants using wireless mice to control particular lenses. With the interactive layers  technique participants control various different aspects of the artwork such as brightness, and different levels of detail. Manning is an artist that depicts Latino immigrants under surveillance on the U.S.-Mexico border. Manning provides the digital photos and videos that are used in the interaction, and Latulipe provides the software to create the moving videos.
Discussion
I thought both of the interaction techniques depicted in this paper can make the viewers appreciate the artwork more than a work hanged in a wall. It is interesting how they present technology to increase the engagement of the viewers. What caught my attention was the fact that the artwork being presented by Manning was surveillance of Hispanic immigrants on the U.S. - Mexico border. She believes that artists are important players in current immigration debates, and that is certainly a point of view that I do not agree with.

Book Reading # 7 - Opening Skinner's Box

Chapter 1: Opening Skinner’s Box

Summary
This chapter introduces a psychologist by the name of B. F. Skinner and his contributions in the field of psychology. The most interesting fact that is introduced at the beginning of this chapter is that Skinner aspired to be a novelist. The chapter describes Skinner's theories of behaviorism, which claims that behavior is shaped by the environment. The author Lauren Slater even gives an example where she employs Skinner's principle of positive reinforcement. This idea is based on Skinner's idea that rewards work much better than any form of punishment.
Discussion
After reading this chapter, I had to go and do some research on Skinner. It turns out that his contributions have made him one of the best psychologists of the 20th century. I find Skinner's theory to be really interesting and I think I agree with his positive reinforcement principle. Slater points out in this chapter how interesting it could be if some of his observations could make an impact on politics.

Book Reading # 6 - Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 2: The Psychology of Everyday Actions

Summary
Mead describes a regular day in the Samoan life. She describes with detail the daily activities that each family member performs from sunrise until the day is over. She describes the customs of everyone ranging from the children to the elders. In this chapter she is starting to give an idea of how this Samoan culture is.
Discussion
I think Mead does a great job describing what each group of people does during the entire day. She starts introducing some of the customs that she is observing. She is starting to observe some sort of hierarchy in the Samoan culture.

Appendix II: Methodology of this Survey

Summary
In this chapter, Mead describes that she used translator in order to interact with the Samoan girls since they did not speak English. This is an advantage as they is no language barrier in collecting information and speaking to the girls. She gathers personal information through a questionnaire.
Discussion
I think it is greatly beneficial that she is using translator to get as much information as possible through her questionnaire without having the language as a barrier. This speaks that Mead wants her acquired data to be as accurate as possible.

Appendix V: Materials Upon Which the Analysis is Based

Summary
In this chapter the data collected from the personal interviews is shown. Some of the information she collected was social and sexual interaction of each of the girls, family and the test topics Mead gave to the girls.
Discussion
I like the idea that Mead shows tables as her gathered information because tables are very pictorial way to represent the data she collected, it is an easy way for a reader to understand results. It is interesting how Mead was able to gather very personal data from the Samoan girls given that Mead was an intruder to their culture.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Paper Reading # 3 - Robotany: Breeze

Reference
Jill Coffin
CHI 2010
Atlanta, Georgia.  April 10-15, 2010.

Summary
In this paper, Coffin describes Breeze which is a roboticized maple tree. Breeze is  a part of an art research program called Robotany, which uses techno-organic artifacts to study technology-human interaction. Breeze was exhibited for the first time in 2006 in Switzerland, and later that same year in San Jose, California. In 2010 Breeze was exhibited in CHI. Coffin describes the different reactions people had in Switzerland and in San Jose. Breeze's exhibition in Switzerland caught the attention of Coffin and other event organizers, as visitors engaged in interaction with the tree. Visitors waving their hands, saying goodbye, and dancing were some of the physical interactions with Breeze. Later on 2006 with a different type of tree, Breeze was exhibited in San Jose. However the interaction was not the same as in Switzerland, at least the physical interaction was different. The interaction in San Jose was more like carefully analyzing the robotic mechanism of Breeze. The observations made by Coffin focus more of the interactions between humans and the art, and how this relates to HCI.
Decision
When I began to read to read this paper, I thought how absurd is this idea to study technology-human interaction trough the use of techno-organic artifacts. However it was interesting to read how the two different trees made the difference in how visitors interacted with Breeze in Switzerland and in San Jose. If I would have attended to a Breeze exhibition, I would have behaved more like the San Jose visitor. I would have focused more to the robotic mechanism of Breeze and begin wondering what other technologies could be beneficial for it to increase human interaction.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Microblogs for HCI Remixed

Chapter 1: My Vision Isn’t My Vision: Making a Career Out of Getting Back to Where I Started
Summary
 This chapter describes the story of how William Buxton interacted with a computer for the first time, and the impact it has had on him. His music professor urged him to go try the music system but Buxton did not see how this could be interesting. Buxton drives out to test the music system and discovers that it is an amazing design as he had never seen a computer yet he was able to intuitively interact with it.
Discussion
I find it really interesting how this chapter is titled. The title does not require you to read much before foreshadowing what kind of story this chapter will tell. I found some facts to be very interesting because of the time this experiment if you will takes place. The fact that there were two lines in color to differentiate pitch was impressing. What I liked the most was hearing yet another story of how people got to where they are now, it really makes me think: Where will I end up?

Chapter 4: Drawing on SketchPad: Reflections on Computer Science and HCI
Summary
The author discusses his origins as a professor and how Sutherland's SketchPad influenced his teaching. He did not realize until he started teaching how valuable Sutherland's contributions were to computer science. When he taught computer graphics he was impressed to find out that the SketchPad had anticipated many things related to this subject.

Discussion
I enjoyed how the author really points out many great things that Sutherland contributed with his SketchPad. Another great thing I think Konstan points out is that HCI is critical to computer science. It is nice that people actually think this course is necessary as we move on and perhaps create the new big SketchPad.

Chapter 5: The Mouse, the Demo, and the Big Idea
Summary
 The author initially describes how he grew up in the Sillicon Valley but did not really though he would purse a career in computers. He was inspired by the video where Engelbart introduced the mouse. But he was not necessarily interested in how to program code but instead he wanted to focus on the mechanical objects that change what you can do with a computer.
Discussion
This chapter made focus on a specific point that the author makes when he claims that Engelbart's demo is "The Mother of All Demos". The way that Engelbart presented his demo was more of a strategy to show people that this was a great invention, that it was real time, it was real!!

Chapter 18: Observing Collaboration: Group-Centered Design
Summary
 This chapter introduces how author Saul Greenberg first became interested in computer-supported cooperative work. His interest was inspired by John Tang, an intern at Xerox PARC, who studied small groups interacting over shared visual work surfaces. Observational studies performed by one of Tang's colleagues Sara Bly and later continued by Tang himself produced important observations about shared work surfaces.
Discussion
I found this chapter to be really interesting since it gives a concise example of how CHI allowed Tang to help make important observations in team design. An extremely important factor to a good design is Tang's observation that design must begin with observing the actual workspaces. This was interesting since during my internship all my team members where geographically dispersed over the world and never met a single one.


Chapter 20: Taking Articulation Work Seriously
Summary
 This chapter explains the concept of computer-supported cooperative work more in depth and how the author became particularly interested in this field. Fitzpatrick explains that the central idea of CSCW is articulation work which determines how to effectively distribute resources amongst teams, allocating tasks and managing team member's activities.
Discussion
Personally this chapter was very interested since I believed I want to do what Fitzpatrick describes as articulation work. I want to be very close to technology but would like to focus in managing people's activities and resources to achieve technological products.

Chapter 23: Video, Toys, and Beyond Being There
Summary
This chapter describes some benefits of computer mediated communication. Smith gives us the example of how he used CMC to allow his mom watch his first daughter in a video conference as Smith's mom could not travel to be there in person. The author also talks about  a paper "Beyond Being There", which expresses that CMC has to revolutionize the communication interactions instead of evolving.

Discussion
What I find most interesting about this chapter was what the authors of "Beyond Being There" believed would be important in face-to-face interactions in the future. With today's Skype, Facebook, and other social network sites, it is amazing to realize these services have been foreshadowed more than a decade ago.

Chapter 24: A Simulated Listening Typewriter: John Gould Plays Wizard of Oz
Summary
This chapter discusses the beginning of speech recognition systems. The author Schmandt meets John Gould who at the time (1980) worked in IBM's Watson research center. The paper describes two different type of experiments where John's "Wizard of Oz" technique was used to evaluate speech recognizers.
Discussion
It is quite interesting knowing that this "Wizard of Oz" technique is an accepted method for evolving technologies. Also if the speech recognition equipment was worth $70,000 in the 70's, I cannot imagine how equipment that I am currently using will devaluate in upcoming generations.


Chapter 25: Seeing the Hole in Space
Summary
In this chapter Steve Harrison explains how the "Hole in Space" changed the way he thought about video-mediated communication. The "Hole in Space" was presented to Harrison by two aesthetic researchers in telecommunications named Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz. The Hole in Space was a project where full-sized images of passersby in New York and Los Angeles were projected on a sidewalk on both cities.
Discussion
Even though I understand the point Harrison makes when he mentions that his research lab could not pay much attention to the project presented by the artists, we have to pay attention to other aspects other than our own fields. Even though technology is needed to accomplish these projections, the main idea comes from art which is very far from what we ourselves focus on.

Chapter 26: Edward Tufte’s 1 + 1 = 3
Summary
In this chapter is talking about his experience in an elevator where Tufte's really made him think the design of the open and close buttons were a perfect example to analyze. He claims there are two design sins of the buttons. The first one is a sloppy presentation. The second sin is making the existence of both buttons necessary.

Discussion
I agree with Tufte's 1+1=3 philosophy that excessive presentation of detail can make a design more complex. However, I do not agree with the author thinking the elevator buttons are a perfect example of Tufte's 1+1=3. The details on the elevator buttons are very clear and easy to understand. I too have made the same mistake of closing the elevator doors as someone is approaching it. However, I have done this by accidentally not looking at the buttons, not by not being able to process in my head which button means close or open.


Chapter 27: Typographic Space: A Fusion of Design and Technology
Summary
This chapter describes how graphic design ties into technology, and how it is expressed through typographic forms. It illustrates some of the issues with the Typographic Space system presented by Muriel Cooper's grad students.

Discussion
This chapter made me realize that graphic design is a great tool with which technology works with. I would like to give the example of a website. People other than computer engineers or web masters only analyze how "pretty" websites look, but never pay attention to their functionalities. We have to admit graphic design plays a huge role in how web sites attract visitors.

Chapter 28: Making Sense of Sense Making
Summary
The author challenges the importance of how information is stored. Kidd claims that once information has served the purpose of informing is no longer useful to store this data. The author goes on to discuss that folders hide information and quick search mechanism do not improve accessibility.

Discussion
I like this chapter because there are things with which I agree and things which I don't agree with. Firs of all, I agree with the idea that information once stored might be hard to find after a long time. However, quick search mechanisms can solve this problem for us. Kidd claims that information is only worth for the first time it used by us. I definitely disagree with this claim, as the main purpose of storing data is to keep the information handy for whenever we need it in the near future.


Chapter 34: Revisiting an Ethnocritical Approach to HCI: Verbal Privilege and Translation
Summary
This chapter presents how the author wanted to become more familiar with the Native American culture. On his search, he reads a book by A. Krupat. The book presents the author with all the information he was looking for, but more than that, it provides him ways to think how this story also fits with HCI.

Discussion
I like the example the author gives when he says that HCI workers are much like the ethnohistorians that had to deal with Native Americans and the U.S. Congress. It is particularly interesting to think about this because the ethnohistorians of present time could be like technology consultants.


Paper Reading #2 - iFeel_IM: Innovative Real-Time Communication System with Rich Emotional and Haptic Channels

Reference
Dzmitry Tsetserukou, Mitsuru Ishizuka, Alena Neviarouskaya, Susumu Tachi, Helmut Prendinger.
CHI 2010  Atlanta, GA, USA. April 10–15, 2010.

Summary
This paper describes an innovative system for instant messaging which involves emotional feedback. The system is called iFeel_IM and its purpose is to simulate your own feelings. The modules used in this IM are called HaptiHeart, HaptiButterfly, HaptiTemper, and HaptiShiver. These modules intended to simulate physical actions such as hugging a person through vibrations in the modules. This can be accomplished by a belt-like system that wraps around your chest and compresses to simulate a hug.
There is also a virtual world called Second Life where these emotions are conveyed.
Discussion
Even though IM will continue to grow and adopt new features, I do not see a system like iFeel_IM being successful. I do not necessarily think that feeling a machine hugging can simulate the same feeling of a real person's hug. Furthermore in order to be able to use this IM you would have to purchase all the modules for the "emotions" to work, and honestly I doubt many people would spend that much money for something like that. I can obviously be mistaken but I definitely see instant messaging with video a whole lot more beneficial for long distance communication.

Ethnography Ideas

1. Observe how people in the Student Computing Center are using the computers. Are they actually doing school work or are they on social networks, watching sports, etc?

2. Study what kind of smart phone is more common amongst Computer Scientists? Study what kind of smart phone is more common amongst all students? Observe if there is a correlation.

3. Investigate where the most effective studying can be done. Is it in a quiet environment such as the quiet floors in Evans library, a loud environment such as the SCC, or perhaps at home?

4. Study what type of jobs college students work in. Do they prefer on campus jobs or off campus jobs?

Chinese Room

Reference
Minds, brains, and programs
John R. Searle
Wikipedia 


Summary
This article describes an experiment described by John Searle in which he addresses the question: if a machine can behave intelligently, does it really understand? Searle imagines a computer in a room which is being fed instructions in Chinese and the computer is able to communicate back with the correct answer. The essence of the controversy is Seale's intention to express that you can create a program to behave intelligently, but you cannot give a mind of its own to a computer. The main controversy arose as a counterargument to functionalism and computationalism. Searle identifies two propositions called strong Al and weak Al. Strong Al was the idea that the simulation was a mind, and weak Al the idea that the simulation modeled a mind.

Discussion
I definitely agree with refuting the idea of believing that a computer has literally understand Chinese (for purposes of this discussion). The computer might be able to act as intelligently as the program that it is told to run. A program when it produces the right output can perhaps make some people think that indeed it has some sort of intelligence, but the "intelligence" is coming from a simulation modeling a mind that can foreshadow the solution of that given problem. I believe people should be extremely careful when interchanging the words brain and mind. There is a big difference between the mind and the brain, however we cannot completely differ one from another and I  include myself in this group of people. I apologize if this discussion was a bit confusing but I found the article to be a bit confusing, not even going to lie there.

Paper Reading # 1 : Sequential Art for Science and CHI

Reference
Sequential Art for Science and CHI
Duncan Rowland
CHI 2010: Monsters Attack!   April 10-15, 2010   Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Summary
This paper tries to present sequential art as a way to improve the way you interact with science and with education. Rowland claims that relaying on a specific method to communicate information can cause this type of method to lose its meaning. He tries to convey this idea by providing as an example a power point presentation. He says that sequential art helps us visualize real world experiences and relate to them. There are two experiments presented in sequential art format which are a windmill science project and a theme park ride portraying physical reactions. Both of the groups involved with these experiments seemed to enjoy presenting information in a sequential art format.


Discussion
I had to read the comic a couple of times before deciding if I had understood the point Rowland was trying to make. The first thing that worries me personally when I start to read is how many pages make up what I am about to read. However, when I read this comic it helped me to read it much faster, and I was able to completely understand Rowland's reasoning behind sequential art. I could not agree more with the statement Rowland makes regarding how a human brain fills in the missing information. This comic definitely contains less words than a ten page article; yet wherever there are words missing the pieces of art help your brain imagine or deduce what the images are trying to portray.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Microblogs for Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 1
_____________________________________________________________
Reference:
Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead


Summary
Chapter 1 begins by analyzing the period of time called adolescence. This time is when young people start developing physical changes and rebellion against authority such as their parents is strong. Margaret tries to account for all the possible factors that could explain why people behave the way they do in adolescence. She believes the best way is to study another cultural that is primitive and completely different than ours. Margaret travels to Samoa to study the lives of fifty adolescent girls in three different towns.

Discussion
I found this article to be very interesting because I think this kind of study is still going on right now. This type of research can even be done here in the U.S. where we have many cultures to study from. The size of the family, the income the family has, and the geographic location of different ethnic groups could help us identify how people react to adolescence in the U.S. I was impressed by Margaret's writing style, it is as if she was living in today's world. I can identify myself to this topic as I grew up in a different country and can definitely see differences between adolescents in both countries.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Microblogs for The Design of Everyday Things

Chapter 1: The Psychopathology of Everyday Things
__________________________________________________________________
 
Reference:
The Design of Everyday Things

by Donald Norman
2002 Basic Books


Summary: 


Chapter 1 describes the idea of how many complex designs can be bad designs, since they stop being intuitive for the user to identify its functionality. Norman describes that visibility is one of the most important factors in a design. He also describes there is a psychological principle to how one should operate every day objects. 




Discussion:


I believe this first chapter introduces CHI extremely well. I found this really interesting since I have realized that I have become really critical when I interact with bad designs in my daily activities. I enjoy trying to come up with ways to improve systems that keep me from accomplishing activities that should not be complex. Many times when we are trying to think how to add functions to existing products we forget to think about the original purpose of the product and hence make this product not intuitive to use. I believe this chapter expresses some concerns we will deal with today's technological advances.

#0 Introduction Blog

Jorge Eduardo Perez
jeperezcorral@gmail.com
9th semester senior
  • Why are you taking this class?
 I am taking this class because I needed to find an elective course and when looking for one this one seemed very interesting as it is a different than the other programming courses. I asked around and my current boss recommended I took a class from Dr. Hammond.
  • What experience do you bring to this class?
 I have taken courses in C++, Java, Databases, and web design.
  • What do you expect to be doing in 10 years?
In ten years from now I expect to have a family and be financially independent. I want to own my personal restaurant bar and a chain of clubs.
  • What do you think will be the next biggest technological advancement in computer science?
I think the next biggest advancement will be 3D tactile interfaces. An example can be found in  this link.
  • If you could travel back in time, who would you like to meet and why?
Even though he is still alive, I would like to go back in time to meet Edson Arantes do Nascimento a.k.a. "Pele" at the prime of his career. Pele is the best soccer player in the history of the sport. 
  • What is your favorite style of mustache and why?
Goatee because if kept well it looks very clean and I feel is gives you man power.
  • If you could be fluent in any foreign language that you're not already fluent in, which one would it be and why?
I would love to speak Portuguese. Since I was a child I wanted to move to Brazil and play soccer there. 
  • Give some interesting fact about yourself. 
I am an extremely responsible person and very dedicated to school. But I love to go out and meet people. My dream job would be to travel all around the globe meeting people, all expenses paid for of course. I would also love to play soccer at a professional club in England, Italy, Spain or Brazil.