CHIFOO 2012 Program Details
Using Your Head (Eyes, Hands or Body): Interacting with Things Interacting with Us
Contemporary user interfaces play an important role both in shaping human behavior and affecting societal norms. They allow us to access the power of computers, but more importantly, they enable people from all walks of life to connect to each other. As revolutionary as the change from command-line to GUI was, every day new interfaces disrupt the way we work, play, and communicate. UX professionals, visual designers, developers, and business strategists need to be aware of trends and changes to get an early view of what’s coming next and embrace what’s possible.
The increased level of intimacy with the user interface means it has the power to shape our behavior in unexpected ways. These emerging interfaces also require a renewed look at the social implications of human-computer interaction in this generation.
The 2012 CHIFOO Program Series gives us a chance to step back and study these new interfaces rather than just adapt to them. Professionals throughout the field explore different types of “next generation” user interfaces, including techniques necessary to design for them. The series also addresses the ways these interfaces might affect the lives of our prospective users. Whether you are a practicing professional, student, or someone new to the field of Human-Computer Interaction, the 2012 CHIFOO Program Series provides insights into new forms of interaction.
Missing the Point: The Expanding World of Gestural Interaction
The paradigm of physical computing is well and truly here—sensors and microcontrollers are getting cheaper and more robust, and they are easily programmable. Long associated with gaming, these sensors are making their way into our everyday ‘utility’ devices. For example, think about the average smart phone: it likely contains a proximity sensor, an accelerometer/orientation sensor, an ambient light sensor, a gyroscopic sensor, and a moisture sensor. Cameras can recognize head motion and facial gestures; they can track body movements and compare them to motion models.
As these sensors become part of everyday interactive devices, we are ushering in new forms of gestural interaction, which is changing how we interact with digital experiences and data, and changing the nature of our computer-mediated communications. In this talk, Elizabeth will offer some observations and speculations on how the world of physical computing, broadly construed, is changing the way in which we interact with our devices, each other, and interactive digital experiences.
Security *IS* a Game: Using the Blender Game Engine for Security
SecViz.org is a great resource for security visualizations, but most suffer from a lack of interactivity. Completing kinectasploit for DEFCON19 made me realize the utility of game engines for interacting with security tools and security information. Jeff will start with a recap/encore performance of kinectasploit (http://p0wnlabs.com/defcon19), which uses gestures to drive a first-person shooter 3D game environment to break into computers on victim virtual machines. Then using the same technology, Jeff will walk through a couple scenes using standard corporate security data in a 3D, kinect-driven environment made possible by the blender game engine.
Kinect and gestures are two of the most prevalent game-changing technologies to affect user interfaces since the keyboard and mouse. Applying these tools to real-world data is challenging, fraught with pitfalls, and a heck of a lot of fun! Let’s discover the boundaries of current technology by pushing it until it fails!
Home Energy Monitoring and Management Systems (HEMS)
Up to 57 million smart meters are expected to be deployed in the United States in the next two decades, which presents an unprecedented opportunity for greater visibility into home energy use. Smart meters themselves are not, however, customer-friendly portals, nor do they give utilities the option of communicating with their customers directly. This is where in-home displays (IHD), or the more comprehensive home energy monitoring and management systems (HEMS) come into play. Monitoring devices for the home, such as the Kill-a-Watt, have been around for more than a decade, but the first technologies on the market can be considered analog, at best. In the past several years, more mature HEMS have evolved which can give customers detailed information about every energy-using device in their home.
The most sophisticated HEMS, such as Tendril’s Connect platform, allow homeowners to control their lighting, appliances, and even electric vehicles remotely, truly transforming a home into a smart home. But, these systems are only just emerging on the market, and there is no road map for how utilities use them to communicate with customers. In this talk, Emily will discuss the evolution of these devices and what the latest technologies on the market are capable of, as well as how HEMS play a pivotal role in the evolution of the smart home.
Mobile as Analytics for Life
Julie is on an early morning training run. She has done some running over the last year, but this will be her first marathon. She doesn’t have a training partner, but a voice in her ear expertly nudges her on, while her mobile device records her pace, her route, and saves it to a training log in the cloud. A friend comments later on Facebook about her commitment, noting that he has trouble running so early in the morning.
Tryouts for the high school soccer team are in three months, but Steve is starting his training now. A device in the midsole of his shoe and in the soccer ball he uses measures direction and acceleration, and compares his data to his peers and to the pros. An app on his mobile device records his statistics, shows him where he is strong and where he is weak, and gives him a training program to elevate his game.
Analytics, the marriage of computer science and statistics, allows us to derive meaning from large sets of data. Historically it has been the domain of business strategy and marketing, used to zero in on patterns which enable strategists to forecast future market behavior and improve outcomes. New mobile technology allows users to collect their own data, connects them to the best science, and does so in a way that is personal, social, and highly targeted. The Nike+ Sensor records running performance, the Adidas miCoach Speed Cell measures multi-directional motion for sports training, the Withings scale and blood pressure monitor helps people monitor their health, and UP by Jawbone measures activity level, sleep cycles, and eating patterns.
How has user-centered design shaped the direction of these new technologies? In this presentation, Jeanne will explore the ways that people have integrated these devices into their lives and discuss whether the technology has followed through on the promise to improve health, performance, and lifestyle.
Beyond the Buzz…Feel the Game with ViviTouch™
Why do gamers who usually demand the most cutting edge technology still accept the primitive buzzing technologies that do not recreate the real feel of the game? They must have not yet experienced what ViviTouch can add to their gaming experience. ViviTouch enables a gamer to experience thousands of sensations in a versatile language of feedback in the palm of the hand. This allows game developers to change the way that their games interact with the gamer.
Marcus will present the exciting consumer reactions from the recent introduction of this technology to gamers and game developers. A case study of the Mophie Pulse gaming case that turns the iPod Touch into a gaming platform with a rumble experience that surpasses console controllers will also be presented. Marcus will introduce how game developers can enable gamers to truly experience ViviTouch for iOS, Android, and other platforms by using available design guides and SDKs.
User experience designers can use this innovative technology to communicate useful information through the sense of touch, such as who is calling or messaging, or enabling a user to feel different parts of their screen, to even potentially enable sightless typing on a touch screen. ViviTouch can become a new tool for user experience designers to integrate to create truly innovative user interfaces.
Behavior Change Systems for Healthy Living
This panel will present the creation of Behavior Change Systems for healthy living by exploring the following three essential areas: (1) Theory—The Cognitive Psychology of Behavior Change, (2) Strategy—Systems Thinking Modeling (how you model ecosytems and values), and (3) Tactical—Examples of Behavior Change Systems (do’s/don’ts).
Sixth Annual CHI-Bowl Party
Time for some hands-on interactions with things with holes in them. Please join us at the Sixth Annual CHI-Bowl event to bowl a few games or just drink a beer and socialize. In addition to shoe rental and a couple rounds of bowling, there will be pizza and festive beverages. You won’t need to bowl a game to win one of our fabulous prizes.
Sit up Straight! - How Wearable Technology can Support Healthy Living
Have you ever wanted to send a hug from far away, automatically track your daily activity, or have your clothing correct your posture? What if your insulin delivery went from being a plastic shot in your pocket to a beautiful ring on your finger? How ubiquitous can pervasive technology really be? We will look at the rapidly changing future of wearable technology where health and wellness companies are early adopters.
Wearable technology syncs with daily life so that we don’t simply think about our health when something hurts, but rather utilize the ever present technology to get and stay healthy. Notoriously unattractive medical devices are being slowly re-engineered into desirable artifacts to carry with pride. Janna will bring a working prototype and samples to interact with and discuss. With 20 years of experience in apparel and health related design, as well as 10 years working in technology, Janna brings a unique perspective of how these two seemingly disparate materials can continue to merge to create the ultimate user experience
Current Trends in Gesture and Body Tracking Interfaces
Omek Interactive provides the most advanced tools for incorporating gesture recognition and full body tracking into your applications. We will talk about trends in gesture interface development—what are the challenges for developing gesture interfaces, and where is gesture being incorporated (TVs, games, digital signage, medical, museums, sports, home automation, etc.). We’ll discuss how to make your applications easier to use. We’ll talk about workflows to make developing applications more efficient in terms of time and cost. We’ll explain our gesture library and why having a set of predefined gestures allows you to develop rapidly and reduce your time to market. OMEK will demonstrate a system with gesture and body tracking.
Prior CHIFOO Meetings in 2012:
Designing Experience with Sound
Simran will discuss the challenges of designing with sound, and how he developed “listening agents” who react and comment on sound in the environment. He will relate experiences—both as software developer and sound artist—and explore sound as a medium. Topics will include what is sound sculpture, what challenges were uncovered in creating it, whether the experience worked according to plan, the challenges in developing applications for these sorts of interactions, the unforeseen consequences resulting from initial forays into these kinds of devices, and how an interface based on sound might change how we relate to sound and sonic devices.
About the Speaker
Simran Gleason is an artist and professional nerd. He started drawing the day after getting a master’s degree in computer science (symbolic and heuristic computation) from Stanford and drifted through many media before arriving at his current focus: making algorithms that make music. Among his more successful installations is Haunted Garden, a room that listens to you, finds the notes in your conversation, and uses them to compose an ambient sound and lightscape. He also did the generative music and light algorithms for SWARM, a gaggle of open source someday-autonomous spherical robots. His work has been shown in galleries in San Francisco and Palo Alto, as well as installations at Maker Fair, Yuri’s Night, Coachella, and the special olympics of art: Burning Man. Kepler’s Orrery is his first iPhone app.
