The paper I recently presented in Savannah, GA during Eye-Tracking Research and Applications ETRA, was recently published in the ACM digital library.

Cherubini, M., Nüssli, M.-A., and Dillenbourg, P. Deixis and gaze in collaborative work at a distance (over a shared map): a computational model to detect misunderstandings. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications (ETRA2008) (Savannah, GA, USA, March 26-28 2008), Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Press. [url]

This paper presents an algorithm that detects misunderstandings in collaborative work at a distance. It analyses the movements of collaborators’ eyes on the shared workspace, their utterances containing references about this workspace, and the availability of ‘remote’ deictic gestures. This method is based on two findings: 1. participants look at the points they are talking about in their message; 2. their gazes are more dense around these points compared to other random looks in the same timeframe. The algorithm associates the distance between the gazes of the emitter and gazes of the receiver of a message with the probability that the recipient did not understand the message.

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We cannot say anymore that the immutable is truth, and that the mobile, transitory is appearance.

Adorno (1973:361)

Two weeks ago, I visited the 78th international motor show in Geneva. It was a very interesting experience. I was particularly interested in seeing all the hybrid cars that were proposed as innovative. With my big surprise there were few. Lots of SUVs and extremely expensive, shiny and pollutant cars. 🙁

For instance, my attention was captured by the great color of the new Alfa Romeo cars presented. They spent a great deal of money to develop a metallic color that shines like hell. They did not care about the car’s consumption though.

Then, I visited the stand of TATA motors. This is an Indian group that is looking for a different approach to car conception. Instead of striving for the style, they look at consumption and costs. They are producing a car called Tata Nano that is going to the market with an initial price of 2000 euro. The car sports a 750 cc engine that reduces of a fourth the usual consumption of a city car. I consider this as a killer product.

Finally, It is worth to mention the PIVO2, a concept car from Nissan. First of all, the car sports an hybrid engine, something rare for its size. Then the design looks really futuristic. The car has one door only, in the front. Then the cabin and the wheels turns in all directions, making it perfect for parking in a densely urbanized area.

I have always been fascinated by the work of Natalie Jeremijenko. She is an artist whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering.

Lately she has been working on installations and projects to make people aware of their ecological footprints. One of her projects I reviewed in the past was OneTrees: a great deal of cloned trees. She planted them in the SF area. Because of their genetic similarities, their differences in growth can be attributed to the different levels of CO2 to which they are exposed. Therefore she thought of using the trees as CO2 sensors.

More recently she worked on the Feral Robots project, an Open Source robotics project providing resources and support for upgrading the raison d’etre of commercially available robotic dog toys. Because the dogs follow concentration gradients of the contaminants they are equipped to sniff, their release renders information legible to diverse participants, provides the opportunity for evidence driven discussion, and facilitates public participation in environmental monitoring and remediation.

A couple of days ago, I received a message on the MIT mailing list. Some journalists are making a documentary film about people who finished “last in class” and the lives they have lived since. I found it extremely interesting as many people that drop out of formal education end up doing great things as well. This is because, I think, each person has different cognitive abilities and ways of acquiring knowledge (a.k.a., learning).

For instance, I think I have good mathematical skills, however, I failed two times the calculous course during my first year in the physics program. I was working hard but my brain just refused to see things as the teacher was pushing me to see.

Anyway, they are still looking for people that fit the bill. If you know somebody that might help just pass the call.

Everyone remembers the college valedictorian, but what about the students who ranked last in the class?

I know what it’s like to be near the bottom (notice the C+ in Archery) and I can tell you that hanging on for dear life is every bit as challenging as finishing first.

Join us as we explore the lives of people not originally destined for greatness. We’re seeking those who finished at – or very near – the bottom of their classes. Was that ranking an indicator of things to come or was it an aberration? I know my story, but what about the others? With your help, we can uncover the secrets to finishing last and learn what they tell us about the future.

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At the CeBit conference in Hannover, Germany, Fraunhofer Institute researchers will present new human-computer interfaces that demonstrate how computers can be operated by gesturing or pointing a finger. The iPoint Presenter uses a series of cameras to observe a person standing in front of a projection screen. When users start moving their hands, the computer reacts without being touched. Users can point to buttons or use gestures to manipulate virtual objects. Multipointing interaction enables users to issue commands using multiple fingers for tasks such as rotating, enlarging, or minimizing objects. Fraunhofer scientist Paul Chojecki says the iPoint Presenter is unique because it is entirely contact-free, making it ideal for use in an operating theater or during a presentation in a large auditorium.

Meanwhile, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT) are teaching computers to understand human gestures and are developing a method for automatically recognizing different hand signals. A prototype containing an intelligent camera connected to a computer running IDMT pattern recognition software will be at the conference where it will record and analyze visitors’ gestures, converting the hand signals into machine commands.

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Copyright notice: the present content was taken from the following URL, the copyrights are reserved by the respective author/s.

SNIF Tag is a matchbook-sized wearable computer for your dog. Small, comfortable, and stylish, the SNIF Tag clips securely to your dog’s collar. Using the latest wireless technology, the Tag records and transmits a record of your pup’s activities and encounters with other SNIF dogs to a sleek base station in your home.

The SNIF Tag is made of durable plastic composites, is water-resistant, and easily clips on and off your dog’s collar for once-a-week charging. The Tag and Base Station aren’t just cutting edge technology, they’re cutting edge design, too: the Tag’s faceplate can be customized to suit your personal style and the discreet, streamlined Base Station is as much sculpture as it is cutting edge technology.

The SNIF website is intuitive and easy to use. When you log in, you’ll find all the information your dog’s SNIF Tag has recorded: the other dogs he’s met; his activities and exercise logs; and all kinds of helpful tools to help you understand the life of your pet better. For the first time, you can check in on your pet’s overall health from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection.

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Copyright notice: the present content was taken from the following URL, the copyrights are reserved by the respective author/s.

Here is a list of “idea labs” around the country/world. It is a list of places where they carry out work very similar to what is done at MIT Media Lab – lots of engineering, design and rapid prototyping/fabrication for projects that push the envelope of technology and its application to our lives.

USA – ACADEMIC

D-Lab/Media-X/CDR, Stanford, http://mediax.stanford.edu/

Infolab, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, http://infolab.northwestern.edu/

Information Sciences Institute/Institute for Creative Technologies, Los Angeles, http://ict.usc.edu/

Georgia Tech GVU, Atlanta, GA, http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/

Human-Computer Interaction Institute, CMU, Pittsburgh, http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/

CMU Entertainment Technology Center, CMU, Pittsburgh, http://www.etc.cmu.edu/

NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program, NYC, http://itp.nyu.edu/itp/flash/Home

Berkeley Institute of Design, Berkeley, CA,  http://bid.berkeley.edu/

Four Eyes Lab, UCSB, CA,  http://ilab.cs.ucsb.edu/

USA – COMMERCIAL



MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, http://www.media.mit.edu/

MERL – Mistubishi Electric Research Laboratories – http://www.merl.com/

Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA, http://www.parc.com/

Eyebeam, NYC,  www.eyebeam.org.

Applied Minds in L.A., http://www.appliedminds.com/

Yahoo! Design Innovation Team, design.yahoo.com

Idea Lab, http://www.idealab.com/

Willow Garage, Menlo Park, CA, http://www.willowgarage.com/

Squid Labs, Berkely, CA, http://www.squid-labs.com/

Institute for Human- and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, FL, http://www.ihmc.us/

Accenture Technology Labs, http://www.accenture.com/Global/Services/Accenture_Technology_Labs/default.htm

IBM Research, http://www.almaden.ibm.com/software/disciplines/user/

Docomo Communications Labs, http://www.docomolabs-usa.com/

EUROPE / ASIA



Innovation Lab, Denmark,  http://innovationlab.dk

medialab prado madrid, spain, http://medialab-prado.es/

v2 rotterdam, holland, http://www.v2.nl/

interactive institutes, sweden, http://www.tii.se/

ars electroncia futurelab, linz, austria, http://www.aec.at/en/futurelab/index.asp

fabrica, treviso, italy, http://www.fabrica.it/

c3, budapest, hungary, http://www.c3.hu/

distance lab, scotland (former ML europe staff), http://www.distancelab.org/

art+com, berlin, germany, http://www.artcom.de/

meso, frankfurt, germany, http://www.meso.net/

Knowledge Media Institute, Milton Keynes, UK, http://kmi.open.ac.uk/

HumLab Blog, Sweden, http://blog.humlab.umu.se/

ITRI Creativity Lab, Taiwan, http://www.itri.org.tw/eng/

Sony Computer Science Lab, Paris and Tokyo, http://www.sonycsl.co.jp/

DFKI, Saarbrucken, Germany, http://www.dfki.de/web

Creativity & Cognition Studios, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, http://www.creativityandcognition.com/

Mobile Life, Stockholm, Sweden, http://www.mobile-life.org/index.php

Studio Creatif, France Telecom, France, http://www.studio-creatif.com/

HITLabNZ, New Zealand,  http://www.hitlabnz.org/

Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Korea, http://www.sait.samsung.co.kr/eng/main.jsp

Don’t think, try!

Jonh Hunter

LIFT is on. Yesterday, I took part in this workshop that stimulated discussions around the reasons that brought different technologies to fail. As the topic was very interesting to many LIFT attendees the room was quite full and we had to break into groups. I coordinated and worked with people interested in reasons of failures of mobile applications. We came out with a list of nine points that summarize well our discussion:

1. Applications should be self-contained. No need to access data remotely as traffic is often charged separately and people do not want to pay extra money;
2. Lack of market model. E. g., Mobile blogging did not really address a real user need;
3. Lack of advertisement;
4. Lack of awareness / lack of certainty. For instance applications might show an inconsistence mechanism of use or either they did not offer appropriate feedback. People could feel uncertain that the application will accomplish their communication intentions;
5. Lack of culture. Either there is not a culture around a new service or the service might offer something which exist in other forms in other contexts;
6. Ergonomic barriers. Usability issues like extremely complicate installation procedures or interaction mechanisms;
7. Pricing/cost model. The user might feel uncomfortable if s/he is not sure of how much s/he is going to pay for using the system or the service;
8. Tradeoff between responding to needs and creating new needs. I actually think that we should design following the first principle but most of the time is the other way around and this lead developers to design for false needs;
9. Lack of standards. One of the biggest barrier for mobile development is the lack of standards. Devices offer inconsistent features and APIs and multi-device programming is extremely costly, and buggy…

During the general discussion we stated that most of the failures of “intelligent applications” lie on the fact that their definition of what is an intelligent behavior is flawed. Essentially, people are not rational and therefore unpredictable. Also for many of these products there is no effort to take the user’s point of view and adapt to changes.