Jason B. Alonso

Real-time landscape model interaction using a tangible geospatial modeling environment

Emerging technologies that combine the flexibility of digital landscape representation with easy-to-interpret 3D physical models open new possibilities for user interaction with geospatial data. A prototype tangible geospatial modeling environment lets users interact with landscape analysis and simulations using a tangible physical model. We introduce a concept that builds upon previous independent tangible user interface (TUI) and terrain analysis research and aims at more intuitive collaborative interaction with digital landscape data

Handsaw: tangible exploration of volumetric data by direct cut-plane projection

Tangible User Interfaces are well-suited to handling three-dimensional data sets by direct manipulation of real objects in space, but current interfaces can make it difficult to look inside dense volumes of information. This paper presents the Handsaw, a system that detects a virtual cut-plane projected by an outstretched hand or laser-line directly on an object or space and reveals sectional data on an adjacent display. By leaving the hands free and using a remote display, these techniques can be shared between multiple users and integrated into everyday practice. The Handsaw has been prototyped for scientific visualizations in medicine, engineering and urban design. User evaluations suggest that using a hand is more intuitive while projected light is more precise than keyboard and mouse control, and the Handsaw system has the potential to be used effectively by novices and in groups.

Values impacting the design of an adaptive educational storybook

We present an adaptive educational narrative that combines an interactive storybook with drama management. By understanding our underlying value system, we are able to create an adaptive narrative that provides features adequate for the target context. Our value system and design needs invite a reexamination and reapplication of interactive storytelling systems, and results in an adaptive narrative framework that is both feasible and extensible to a wide range of experiences.

Toward a dynamic dramaturgy: an art of presentation in interactive storytelling

In interactive storytelling systems, we see common challenges of artistic expression that pertains to presentation, standing apart from narrative structure. We believe this expression can be achieved computationally, which is a core challenge in using procedurally-generated worlds in interactive storytelling. This computational expression so is what we call dynamic dramaturgy. We intend dynamic dramaturgy as a complement to interactive narrative systems, particularly drama management, and as a fundamentally distinct task from plot-level narrative construction, yet it is still a basic medium for artistic expression by an author. It is, in effect, an art of presentation in interactive storytelling.

egaku: enhancing the sketching process

INTRODUCTION Architects sketch using a translucent vellum tracing paper with a thick pencil or marker. The translucency of the paper allows architects to employ a layer-drawing technique for the exploration of ideas derived from their basic design. For example, working with a single base layer such as a map of the site, architects can design upwards of hundreds of possible variations. This ultimately leads to a great pile of drawings, which compose the piles of papers typically strewn about an architecture studio. Individually, these “referential” sketches represent small pieces of a much larger design concept [2]. Although they are valuable, they are often cumbersome to manage during the ideation process because it interrupts the flow of ideation, and even difficult to understand when a single sketch is taken out of associated sketches.