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To Classify is to Interpret
(2023)
Taxonomy building is a task that requires interpreting and classifying data within a given frame of reference, which comes to play in many areas of application that deal with knowledge and information organization. In this paper, we explore how taxonomy building can be supported with systems that integrate machine learning (ML). However, relying only on black-boxed ML-based systems to automate taxonomy building would sideline the users’ expertise. We propose an approach that allows the user to iteratively take into account multiple model’s outputs as part of their sensemaking process. We implemented our approach in two real-world use cases. The work is positioned in the context of HCI research that investigates the design of ML-based systems with an emphasis on enabling human-AI collaboration.
This paper presents Emosaic, a tool for visualizing the emotional tone of text documents, considering multiple dimensions of emotion and varying levels of semantic granularity. Emosaic is grounded in psychological research on the relationship between language, affect, and color perception. We capitalize on an established three-dimensional model of human emotion: valence (good, nice vs. bad, awful), arousal (calm, passive vs. exciting, active) and dominance (weak, controlled vs. strong, in control). Previously, multi-dimensional models of emotion have been used rarely in visualizations of textual data, due to the perceptual challenges involved. Furthermore, until recently most text visualizations remained at a high level, precluding closer engagement with the deep semantic content of the text. Informed by empirical studies, we introduce a color mapping that translates any point in three-dimensional affective space into a unique color. Emosaic uses affective dictionaries of words annotated with the three emotional parameters of the valence-arousal-dominance model to extract emotional meanings from texts and then assigns to them corresponding color parameters of the hue-saturation-brightness color space. This approach of mapping emotion to color is aimed at helping readers to more easily grasp the emotional tone of the text. Several features of Emosaic allow readers to interactively explore the affective content of the text in more detail; e.g., in aggregated form as histograms, in sequential form following the order of text, and in detail embedded into the text display itself. Interaction techniques have been included to allow for filtering and navigating of text and visualizations.
Theoretical and Empirical Modeling of Identity and Sentiments in Collaborative Groups (THEMIS.COG) was an interdisciplinary research collaboration of computer scientists and social scientists from the University of Waterloo (Canada), Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and Dartmouth College (USA). This white paper summarizes the results of our research at the end of the grant term. Funded by the Trans-Atlantic Platform’s Digging Into Data initiative, the project aimed at theoretical and empirical modeling of identity and sentiments in collaborative groups. Understanding the social forces behind self-organized collaboration is important because technological and social innovations are increasingly generated through informal, distributed processes of collaboration, rather than in formal organizational hierarchies or through market forces. Our work used a data-driven approach to explore the social psychological mechanisms that motivate such collaborations and determine their success or failure. We focused on the example of GitHub, the world’s current largest digital platform for open, collaborative software development. In contrast to most, purely inductive contemporary approaches leveraging computational techniques for social science, THEMIS.COG followed a deductive, theory-driven approach. We capitalized on affect control theory, a mathematically formalized theory of symbolic interaction originated by sociologist David R. Heise and further advanced in previous work by some of the THEMIS.COG collaborators, among others. Affect control theory states that people control their social behaviours by intuitively attempting to verify culturally shared feelings about identities, social roles, and behaviour settings. From this principle, implemented in computational simulation models, precise predictions about group dynamics can be derived. It was the goal of THEMIS.COG to adapt and apply this approach to study the GitHub collaboration ecosystem through a symbolic interactionist lens. The project contributed substantially to the novel endeavor of theory development in social science based on large amounts of naturally occurring digital data.
The five editions of the CheckThat! lab so far have focused on the main tasks of the information verification pipeline: check-worthiness, evidence retrieval and pairing, and verification. The 2023 edition of the lab zooms into some of the problems and - for the first time - it offers five tasks in seven languages (Arabic, Dutch, English, German, Italian, Spanish, and Turkish): Task 1 asks to determine whether an item, text or a text plus an image, is check-worthy; Task 2 requires to assess whether a text snippet is subjective or not; Task 3 looks for estimating the political bias of a document or a news outlet; Task 4 requires to determine the level of factuality of a document or a news outlet; and Task 5 is about identifying authorities that should be trusted to verify a contended claim.
Journalism has become more data-driven and inherently visual in recent years. Photographs, illustrations, infographics, data visualizations, and general images help convey complex topics to a wide audience. The way that visual artifacts influence how readers form an opinion beyond the text is an important issue to research, but there are few works about this topic. In this context, we research the persuasive, emotional and memorable dimensions of data visualizations and illustrations in journalistic storytelling for long-form articles. We conducted a user study and compared the effects which data visualizations and illustrations have on changing attitude towards a presented topic. While visual representations are usually studied along one dimension, in this experimental study, we explore the effects on readers' attitudes along three: persuasion, emotion, and information retention. By comparing different versions of the same article, we observe how attitudes differ based on the visual stimuli present, and how they are perceived when combined. Results indicate that the narrative using only data visualization elicits a stronger emotional impact than illustration-only visual support, as well as a significant change in the initial attitude about the topic. Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature on how visual artifacts may be used to inform and influence public opinion and debate. We present ideas for future work to generalize the results beyond the domain studied, the water crisis.
This article investigates data journalism epistemology through Michel Foucault’s definition of power. The growing demand for data-savvy reporters with computational skills has been proven to shift the newsrooms’ culture in media companies across the globe. Previous research has documented journalists’ shift towards a data-centred epistemology and the increasingly important role of computation and data-driven practices in newsrooms. By focusing on inexperienced journalists as they mobilise data journalism for the first time, this research openly discusses its epistemology as a form of Foucauldian power: which epistemological tensions – individual or structural – emerge among newcomers when reporting extensively with data? The article presents the case of a newly formed data journalism team at taz, a German cooperative media company. It is based on qualitative data collected through action research, namely six in-depth interviews, auto-ethnographic notes and self-reflective inquiries. Data are framed through Foucault’s concepts of power and will to truth. Results show the discord between data journalism epistemology and its practical implementation. Despite prioritising democratic access to data, technologies and non-hierarchical forms of cooperation, data journalism remains largely dependent on traditional methods and culture.
Transdisciplinary research processes often involve the integration of knowledge and stakeholders from various backgrounds. Here, we introduce the story of the research project AMA (A Mindset for the Anthropocene) on the role of mindsets in the context of sustainability and present an interactive visualization tool that we developed for stakeholder mapping and research communication. Through this platform, we provide access and navigation to everyone interested in this field of research and we have simultaneously created a channel for all stakeholders to co-create content. Here, we describe the design and functionalities of the platform and the participatory way it was developed as part of our stakeholder engagement. We discuss upon how such a design allows for reflection of potential biases in transdisciplinary research processes and simultaneously catalyzing self-organization in stakeholder networks.
As part of the research project Open Data Cloud Services (ODCS), we have been trying to overcome some of the limitations introduced through the heterogeneity of spatial open government data (sOGD). In this paper we describe some of the challenges of sODG and one of the tools we built to spatially organize heterogenous sOGD, to make it easier for users to find data and automatically integrate it into existing data structures and in the future allow for cross-dataset spatial analysis.
The 17th International Conference on Knowledge Management was held in the historic city of Potsdam, Germany. The conference was among the first post-pandemic face to face conferences, and the overall theme of the 17th edition of the ICKM conference rightly focused on “Knowledge, Uncertainty and Risks: From individual to global scale” at different levels of analysis and agency.
Nachtalb
(2022)
Nachtalb is an immersive interface that enables brain-to-brain interaction using multisensory feedback. With the help of the g.tec Unicorn Hybrid Black brain-computer-interface (BCI), brain-activity-data is measured and translated visually with the Oculus Quest 2, tactilely with the bHaptics TactSuit and auditorily with 3D Sound. This intends to create a feedback loop that turns brain activity from data-input into sensory output which directly influences the brain activity data-input again.
In Case You Don’t Know What To Play is a framework for designing a Virtual Reality application that uses spatial distortion to influence the user’s visual perception and ultimately shall manipulate their sense of time. Spatial orientation allows us to judge distances regarding their temporal component. In particular, in self-motion we can estimate the duration it takes to cover a given distance, since time and spatial perception are connected. This connection can be broken with the help of Virtual Reality technology and a perceptual conflict can be created.
Surprise Machines is a project of experimental museology that sets out to visualize the entire image collection of the Harvard Art Museums, with a view to opening up unexpected vistas on more than 200,000 objects usually inaccessible to visitors. The project is part of the exhibition organized by metaLAB (at) Harvard entitled Curatorial A(i)gents and explores the limits of artificial intelligence to display a large set of images and create surprise among visitors. To achieve this feeling of surprise, a choreographic interface was designed to connect the audience’s movement with several unique views of the collection.
Overview of the CLEF-2022 CheckThat! Lab on Fighting the COVID-19 Infodemic and Fake News Detection
(2022)
We describe the fifth edition of the CheckThat! lab, part of the 2022 Conference and Labs of the Evaluation Forum (CLEF). The lab evaluates technology supporting tasks related to factuality in multiple languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, German, Spanish, and Turkish. Task 1 asks to identify relevant claims in tweets in terms of check-worthiness, verifiability, harmfullness, and attention-worthiness. Task 2 asks to detect previously fact-checked claims that could be relevant to fact-check a new claim. It targets both tweets and political debates/speeches. Task 3 asks to predict the veracity of the main claim in a news article. CheckThat! was the most popular lab at CLEF-2022 in terms of team registrations: 137 teams. More than one-third (37%) of them actually participated: 18, 7, and 26 teams submitted 210, 37, and 126 official runs for tasks 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
The fifth edition of the CheckThat! Lab is held as part of the 2022 Conference and Labs of the Evaluation Forum (CLEF). The lab evaluates technology supporting various factuality tasks in seven languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, German, Spanish, and Turkish. Task 1 focuses on disinformation related to the ongoing COVID-19 infodemic and politics, and asks to predict whether a tweet is worth fact-checking, contains a verifiable factual claim, is harmful to the society, or is of interest to policy makers and why. Task 2 asks to retrieve claims that have been previously fact-checked and that could be useful to verify the claim in a tweet. Task 3 is to predict the veracity of a news article. Tasks 1 and 3 are classification problems, while Task 2 is a ranking one.
The goal of HaS task 8.2 "Open Methods Review" according to the description of work was to develop a "Open Humanities Methods Review Journal" in which methods and tools used in Digital Humanities Research would be reviewed. In order to achieve this, we have launched a metablog called Open Methods. It is a tool which aims at republishing already published content dealing with the use of methods and tools in Digital Humanities (DH) research. The selection is done by an Editorial Team of renowned DH experts. The Editorial Team is coordinated by the Chief Editor and supported by a Management Team. About the nature of this document: This deliverable is the second and last one of work package 8 "Open Methods Infrastructure". It is a short description of the work done within this work package and its result: the OpenMethods metablog.
Information management and content governance in large corporations is an ongoing challenge. As a case study, we present the adaptation of the elastic lists facet browser for browsing and analysing large resource collections in an intranet of a large telecommunication corporation. The application allows users to explore resource aggregations over multiple classification schemata in parallel, enabling not only personalized information access, but also improved understanding of content distributions, as well as trend analysis and target tracking. We further present empirical usability results of a first prototype from questionnaires and eye tracking studies.
We present findings from design research on disclosure at the intersection of data visualization, digital storytelling, and feminism. While there is an increased awareness of power structures in data science, computing, and design, there is little design research to confront these. This work explores the potential of disclosing context information of data stories, i.e., digital storytelling formats utilizing data visualizations, to enable critical-feminist readings of and reflections on these stories. Drawing from a growing body of feminist scholarship in human-computer interaction, data science, and beyond, we identify key aspects and forms of disclosure for embedding them into visual data story interfaces. We devise and validate these aspects and forms within a case study: a Web-based scrollytelling article explaining the feminist concept of intersectionality using a combination of animated illustration, data visualization, and text. With this work, we demonstrate and discuss the potentials and pitfalls of disclosure practices in data storytelling.
Heattile, a new method for heatmap implementations for mobile web-based cartographic applications
(2014)
Mobile handheld computing devices are becoming a more important part of our digital infrastructure. Web-based map services and visualisations for spatial data are being optimised for use on these new mobile devices. Despite the fast development of mobile devices, compared to laptop and desktop computers they remain slower in terms of processing power and have limited memory capacity. Bandwidth in most areas is still limited, regardless of the fast expansion of high-speed internet for mobile devices. To overcome these two limitations an improvement in existing spatial data visualisations is necessary. This chapter compares existing methods and presents a new approach to generating and delivering web-based heat map visualisations for spatial data that is optimised for mobile devices.
Today research is in the midst of a global transformation that is usually referred to as Open Science. Open Science is a response from communities to global societal developments and to the digital transformation of research processes and leads to the emergence of new practices that are embedded in a digital ecosystem. The global Medieval Studies community is slowly adapting to this new culture that raises new questions around scientific practices. This article discusses three major pillars of Open Science: Open Access, Open Data, and Open Science Communication in the Digital Age. It considers the potential of these practices for individual researchers and for the role of medieval research in a modern society and explains good practices to start with.
Scholz, da Costa Oliveira und Dörk widmen sich in ihrem Beitrag Erfahrungen mit digitalen Werkzeugen im Kontext ethnologischer Sammlungen sowie den Herausforderungen, die sich bei der Berücksichtigung unterschiedlicher Wissenspraktiken in der Zusammenarbeit mit Heritage Communities stellen. Ausgehend von dem Projekt Sharing Knowledge (2014-2020), das im Ethnologischen Museum (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/ Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz) stattfand, wird argumentiert, dass die Trägheit von Infrastrukturen und die Erforschung ihrer Funktionsweise - d.h. die Entschlüsselung der Meistererzählungen und Ausschlussmechanismen hinter musealen Wissenspraktiken - entscheidende Schlüssel darstellen zur Entwicklung von Werkzeugen und Taktiken, um eben diese Trägheit zu umgehen und zu untergraben. Während der erste Teil des Papiers dem Beispielprojekt kritische Aufmerksamkeit schenkt, schlägt der zweite Teil neue Methoden vor, um Infrastrukturen zu entwickeln, die Relationalität und Pluralität zulassen.
Creative coding is a form of postdigital art that uses programming to solve esthetical problems, subordinating functionality to expression. It often comes with rather uncommon usage patterns of coding, going beyond technologies' affordances and finding ways of appropriating them in an individual way and in exchange with others. The learning ecologies GitHub, Stack Overflow, and Pouët present digital infrastructures that curate and support such appropriation-related activities. The paper presents a qualitative analysis of the structure of these spaces, and the appropriation-related communication taking place. It shows how crucial the varying designs of the learning ecologies and the implemented interaction possibilities are for the appropriation activities taking place and draws a line to the desire for stronger participation in postdigital curation.
Curatorial activities provide (infra)structure and meaning to artworks through the selection and combination of different pieces and their public display. Therefore the way context is added shapes people’s perspective towards art. (Post-)digital art and online exhibitions come with specific constraints concerning curation and have a potential to overcome the hierarchies between curators, artists and visitors. In discussing selected digital exhibition formats from the 1990s until today, the article illustrates how the genre has evolved in response to technological changes and concepts of democratization as well as user involvement. Looking at the online exhibition “UN/NATURAL SURROGATES” (2019) the article opens up a perspective towards meta-curating that allows to conceive (online) exhibitions as a means of reflecting on curatorial processes in the postdigital era.
We see more cartographic products in our digital world than ever before. But what role does cartography play in the modern production of cartographic products? In this position paper, we will argue that the democratization and diffusion of cartographic production has also led to the presumed “fading relevance” of cartography. As an argument against this notion, we highlight starting points for the field of cartography to improve modern cartographic production through its inherent cartographic knowledge.
In this article we describe a concept for the digital preservation of the cultural heritage of smaller cultural institutions without their own infrastructure, in order to preserve and use digital objects in the long term. For this purpose, a digital archive will be extended by a pre-ingest component, which will aggregate the digital objects of the cultural institutions and provide access to the archived information. The proposed system for distributed digital preservation can be described by an extended Open Archive Information System (OAIS) reference model—the Outer-Inner OAIS (OO-IO) model. In the Federal state of Brandenburg there are about 340 archives, museums and libraries. Most of them are rather small but of great significance for cultural heritage. The digital preservation of data and information is therefore one of the biggest challenges. Unfortunately, smaller institutions often lack the knowledge and the resources to meet this challenge. The described approach supports these cultural and research institutions in their efforts to preserve cultural heritage.
In this paper we present a general definition of the concept ’intuitive use of user interfaces’ on the basis of our current interdisciplinary work. ’Intuitive use’ is regarded as a characteristic of human-machine systems. It refers to a special kind of interaction process between users and technical systems that use the users’ intuition. The main part of the paper deals with central aspects of this definition in detail and discusses pre-conditions and restrictions of the use of the concept. The main aspects that we discuss are the design of technical systems, application and non-conscious use of previous knowledge, intuition as a non-conscious process, interaction, and effectiveness. We complement this discussion by addressing the relationship between aesthetics and intuitive use.
SocialButton
(2007)
We are exploring the use of small displays as an instrument to enhance social communication. Our focus is on encouraging communication between strangers by revealing the existence of common friends. In the following we present the concept of the SocialButton, a wearable mobile device which displays aspects of friend-of-a-friend networks. A group study has provided us with an initial understanding regarding the potential of the SocialButton to influence our social environment.
In this paper, we investigate possibilities and limitations of temperature change as a method for information display in mobile applications. While some widespread and well-recognized haptic displays such as force-feedback often trigger the user's immediate attention, we will focus on ambient strategies for tactile information display, that is, the display of gradual state changes in the user's periphery that do not unexpectedly interrupt her current tasks, but builds on the mind's ability for subliminal perception of environmental change instead [1, 2].
To this end, we present a series of prototypes of mobile devices that display ambient information by means of thermal change based on the thermo-electric effect [3]. In order to assess the expedience and feasibility of such a display, a series of user tests have been conducted with respect to both, the ability for thermal change recognition and a concrete application scenario for such a display.
Articulated paint
(2007)
In this paper we present the concept and prototype of a new musical interface that utilizes the close relationship between gestural expression in the act of painting and that of playing a musical instrument in order to provide non-musicians the opportunity to create musical expression. A physical brush on a canvas acts as the instrument. The characteristics of its stroke are intuitively mapped to a conductor program, defining expressive parameters of the tone in real-time. Two different interaction modes highlight the importance of bodily expression in making music as well as the value of a metaphorical visual representation.
Today numerous telecommunication services are implemented and brought to users. Common for these services is that their interfaces differ tremendously. As a consequence users have to learn the usage of each interface. Amorelation provides the new approach of meshed interaction design patterns (MIDP) that enable service usage in a consistent way for arbitrary telecommunication services. These patterns enable the design of complex interfaces for a variety of interfaces in a convenient and similar manner. With other words, through MIDP receives the user an unified user experience for a variety of applications. A novelty of this approach is the linkage between the modeling of patterns and interface design, which is achieved by a hierarchical structuring of the patterns. The MIDP approach is applied to a Mobile Messaging Service. This application is evaluated with and without MIDP by well-known usability measures like efficiency and ease-to-use.
United-pulse
(2008)
This paper introduces a device that creates remote intimacy by the use of two rings named "united-pulse". Each ring can measure the wearer's heartbeat and send it to the partner's ring. Hereby, artificial corporeality is created between the couple. By means of a working prototype, united-pulse has been successfully tested. Among the 28 participants the prototype has attracted large interest. Through the heartbeat - the essential vital sign - a feeling of being very close to the partner is provided. Touching the ring allows a small moment of intimacy in situations where emotional support is needed.
In this paper we present a device to support the communication of couples in long-distance relationships. While a synchronous exchange of factual information over distance is supported by telephone, e-mail and chat-systems, the transmission of nonverbal aspects of communication is still unsatisfactory. Videocalls let us see the partners' facial expression in real time. However, to experience a more intimate conversation physical closeness is needed. Stroking while holding hands is a special and emotional gesture for couples. Hence, we developed a device that enables couples to exchange the physical gesture of stroking regardless of distance and location. The device allows both sending and receiving. A user test supported our concept and provided new insights for future development.
{hi}stories
(2008)
With more and more digital information being produced by individuals every day, we will soon be able to use it to understand the past. Based on this premise this paper presents {Hi}Stories, a system to support the creation and access of user generated contents as historical evidences. In {Hi}Stories users aggregate contents from Internet and are invited to contribute their own material. It combines a number of research themes: collaborative information structuring, combination of contents from online services, and visualization and browsing of structured information collections.
Spoken Words
(2008)
Writing is a predominantly visual task. In the following, we describe a system that adds a new modality to computer-supported text editing: Listening with closed eyes.
We present a prototype, for which we combined a text-to-speech software, Microsoft Word and a face tracking system. It reads out the current sentence in Microsoft Word as soon as the user closes both eyes.
In this paper we discuss further details of the concept and its background, describe the implementation of the prototype and disclose first user testing results, before we conclude our findings with an outlook on future research.
Perspective change
(2008)
This project explores the change of on-screen views through single-sided eye closure. A prototype was developed, three different applications are presented: Activating a sniper scope in a 3D shooter game, zooming out into a overview perspective over a web page, and filtering out icons on a cluttered desktop. Initial user testing results are presented.
With relational perspectives, we examine the potential of traversing cultural collections along the richness of individual facets and relations through the process of developing an exploration-centered visualization. Cultural collections can contain thousands of artifacts, of which each typically possesses a diverse set of properties and individual facets constituting a unique relationship to the rest of the collection. Therefore, to create an appropriate representation of the complex data of each underlying artifact, oftentimes, it is not only interesting to get an overview of the entire collection from one perspective, but to explore the specific context of an artifact and the various relations it may have to other items. To investigate the potential of relational perspectives, we selected an art collection as a particularly promising case study. By following and reporting from a collaborative and iterative design process with an art museum, we developed a web interface that contrasts a collection overview with three situated visualizations each exposing a different kind of relational perspective on the art collection from an artifact.
The role of libraries changed tremendously in the digital age. Search engine technology and full text availability now define the standards for information research. Libraries as knowledge providers have to face the challenges of the new technologies. Our poster contribution takes the example of Augmented Reality (AR) to show a way to use the potential of digital technology for library services. AR offers new possibilities to contextualize library data. Hence the transfer of knowledge can be enriched by virtual information and visualization. In our poster we introduce the project mylibrARy and the status quo of the conceptual process of designing a library AR-app. mylibrARy is a cooperation project between the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, a public library in Berlin and metaio GmbH. By providing mobile access to enriched library data the institution is able to stay in touch with users or even generate new users with a high affinity for digital technology. According to the result of our first of four user studies especially the integration of social media and social reading functions plays a crucial role in reaching that aim. Beside the connection to the local library knowledge organization system in the app we plan to integrate further features for the semantic contextualization such as the Wikipedia categories.
Fritzing
(2009)
Today a growing community of DIY-practitioners, artists and designers are using microcontroller-based toolkits to express their concepts for digital artifacts by building them. However, as these prototypes are generally constructed using solder-free technologies, they are often fragile and unreliable. This means a huge burden of care and upkeep for these inventions when they are either exhibited or sold.
We present a software application called Fritzing which allows artists, designers and DIY-tinkerers to prepare their hardware inventions for production. Through an interface metaphor based on the typical workflow of the target group, Fritzing has proven its ability to provide useful support in the steps following the invention of an interactive artifact.
Fritzing serves also as a tool for documenting these interactive artifacts. As sharing of knowledge has been a driving force within this new DIY-movement, there is a need for a consistent and readable form of documentation which Fritzing can provide.
Fritzing has also proven to be a useful tool in teaching electronics to people without an engineering background.
Stick, Click n' Call
(2009)
This paper describes a new interaction concept, which is based on customizable self-adhesive stickers with an integrated button, manufacturable at low cost. By pressing the button, users can execute specialized functionalities on their mobile phones, e.g. dialing phone numbers or accessing URLs. We present three usage scenarios and a proof-of-concept prototype.
Living interfaces
(2009)
In this paper, we present a novel type of persuasive home appliance: A thrifty water faucet. Through a servo motor construction, it is enabled to move and behave in life-like manners and to step into dialogue with the user. For example about water consumption or hygiene. We sought to research the reactions of users to such an appliance, alongside possible implications for the design of future human-machine interfaces.
This project is part of a larger series of experiments in the Living Interfaces project, exploring ways in which reduced and abstract life-like movements can be beneficial for Human-Machine Interaction.
The digital hourglass
(2009)
This paper presents the Digital Hourglass, an alarm clock that focuses on the amount of sleep, rather than wake-up times. It follows a simple approach, lighting one LED for each hour of sleep, and physically resembles the interaction with a conventional hourglass: Tilting the hourglass moves 'time' between its chambers, placing it in an upright position activates it, turning it by 180° snoozes it and placing it horizontally on a surface turns it off.
Living interfaces
(2009)
In this paper we introduce a new way to interact intimately with an automated system. The Intimate Door Lock investigates the psychological effects of intimate humanhuman interaction being applied to man-machine interfaces. The door lock, in our prototype, is installed at the inside of a domestic front door, and remains locked until given a kiss by its owner. In our prototype, the element to be kissed is a camera-augmented mirror, which we intended to use as a means of lowering the inhibition level. This work is part of a larger series of experiments in the Living Interfaces project, exploring ways in which reduced life-like movements can be beneficial for Human-Machine Interaction.
Living interfaces
(2009)
This paper introduces the Impatient Toaster, a kitchen appliance designed to motivate its owners to eat more often and in regular intervals: After not using it for a while, it signalizes hunger through nervous movements. This project sought to explore life-like behaviour as a means of increasing user's sympathy for everyday objects. We present a prototype that was informally tested with six participants in a situated user test. The results indicate that sympathy and perceived cuteness can arise from life-like movements that, as we propose, represent an object's will of its own. This work is part of a larger series of experiments in the Living Interfaces project, exploring ways in which reduced life-like movements can be beneficial for Human-Machine Interaction.
Human-computer cooperation
(2009)
Whether it be DVD-players, automatic ticket machines, cell phones, PDAs, machines, computers or even airplane cockpits, an increasing number of products at home and at work have a user interface, in other words a place where humans and machines meet. Direct contact with interactive technology was previously limited to the workplace. Now, there is hardly a social group that does not come into contact directly or indirectly with computer or information systems. However, the continuous increase in the performance and functionality of information and communication systems has resulted in rising complexity in controlling such systems. The practicality of user interfaces has become more and more a key criterion for acceptance and success in the market.
Today, digital learning resources in architecture are spread over a growing number of repositories world-wide. Students of architecture face increasing problems finding and being aware of appropriate learning resources they need within their collaborative and/or exploratory learning scenarios. The Metadata for Architectural Contents in Europe (MACE) system addresses these issues by intelligently aggregating and linking information about learning resources from various repositories. We show how, by establishing explicit relations between the learning resources and by adding community features, students are supported in their learning activities. First experiments indicate that the chosen approach improves the results students can achieve in their studies.
Recording inner life
(2010)
"Recording Inner Life" is the title of my master's thesis. It is a system to express the "inner life" (feelings, affects, and emotions) and record them on a long-term basis into a computational system. In contrast to a lot of the research in the field of affective computing this project is not dedicated to enable machines to detect human emotions but to allow an adequate input for emotions. It presents "MyInnerLife", a physical input device to express and record emotions non-verbally.
This studio will give participants a hands-on introduction to Fritzing, a free software tool for advancing electronic prototyping for researchers and practitioners of tangible, interactive electronics. Participants will bring one of their hand-wired prototypes (or a concrete concept) and in several steps learn to document it properly, share it with the community, and turn it into a professional printed circuit board.
Valeo
(2010)
In current healthcare research, pain logs are an important means to measure the impact of medication and to detect pain patterns. However, the entry of textual pain data may be negatively reinforcing, due to its character of direct confrontation with one's pain, potentially leading to a higher pain awareness. This paper introduces valeo, a new form of a tactile pain log, which is based on a vibrotactile, pressure- and tilt-sensitive device. Future iterations will also include body part recognition. By squeezing it close to one's own body, the subjective intensity of a local pain is manifested in the device. Via a shove gesture, it is then transmitted to a docking station. Advantageously, the pain data is covert and conceptually alienated from the patient's body, which may support a possible relief. A proof-of-concept prototype and a user study indicate that our concept is perceived as convenient and reduces negative conditioning.