Jim Budd

Don't mind me touching my wrist: a case study of interacting with on-body technology in public

Wearable technology, specifically e-textiles, offers the potential for interacting with electronic devices in a whole new manner. However, some may find the operation of a system that employs non-traditional on-body interactions uncomfortable to perform in a public setting, impacting how readily a new form of mobile technology may be received. Thus, it is important for interaction designers to take into consideration the implications of on-body gesture interactions when designing wearable interfaces. In this study, we explore the third-party perceptions of a users interactions with a wearable e-textile interface. This two-prong evaluation examines the societal perceptions of a user interacting with the textile interface at different on-body locations, as well as the observers attitudes toward on-body controller placement. We performed the study in the United States and South Korea to gain cultural insights into the perceptions of on-body technology usage.

Kurio: a museum guide for families

We discuss three design strategies for improving the quality of social interaction and learning with interactive museum guides: 1) embodied interaction; 2) game-learning; 3) a hybrid system. We used these strategies in our prototype Kurio, which is aimed at supporting families visiting museums. The results of our evaluation show positive implications of implementing the design strategies: closing the social gap, naturalizing technology, and supporting exploration and discovery in learning.

PageCraft: learning in context a tangible interactive storytelling platform to support early narrative development for young children

PageCraft is an interactive storytelling platform that supports narrative development for young children. It is designed to provide a transition between physical and digital media. By associating physical objects with text and visuals displayed on a digital screen, the system offers children progressive experiences in storytelling through a rich multi-sensory environment they can share with their parents, caregivers, and friends. A multidisciplinary initiative, PageCraft builds a bridge between theory and practice by combining experience in interactive product design together with research in digital narrative to focus on context of use. The system design considers the context of childrens experience of narrative as they grow and develop -- they learn on the go and they learn from those around them. Historically it has been convenient to pack up books and building blocks for a summer vacation or a day trip to visit grandparents. Most technically oriented products do not meet these criteria. This project presents the prototype framework for a system that aims to address the demands of such daily routines.

The social comfort of wearable technology and gestural interaction.

The “wearability” of wearable technology addresses the factors that affect the degree of comfort the wearer experiences while wearing a device, including physical, psychological, and social aspects. While the physical and psychological aspects of wearing technology have been investigated since early in the development of the field of wearable computing, the social aspects of wearability have been less fully-explored. As wearable technology becomes increasingly common on the commercial market, social wearability is becoming an ever-more-important variable contributing to the success or failure of new products. Here we present an analysis of social aspects of wearability within the context of the greater understanding of wearability in wearable technology, and focus on selected theoretical frameworks for understanding how wearable products are perceived and evaluated in a social context. Qualitative results from a study of social acceptability of on-body interactions are presented as a case study of social wearability.

Experience Structuring Factors Affecting Learning in Family Visits to Museums

This paper describes the design and evaluation of an adaptive museum guide for families. In the Kurio system, a mixture of embedded and tangible technology imbues the museum space with additional support for learning and interaction, accessible via tangible user interfaces. Families engage in an educational game where family members are assigned individual challenges and their progress is monitored and coordinated by the family member with a PDA. After each round of challenges, the family returns to a tabletop display to review their progress. In this paper we present the overall evaluation result of Kurio and, using the model discovery approach, we determine which experience structuring factors have a substantial influence on the learning experience.

A visual feedback design based on a brain-computer interface to assist users regulate their emotional state

In situations where there is a stressful workload or when unexpected things occur, people often find it difficult to regulate their emotions. To assist them in effective regulation, this design utilizes neurofeedback, providing users real-time emotion feedback to augment their emotional states through the use of a tangible interface. The visual feedback incorporates a series of colored LEDs that map an individuals affective state. This user study is structured to examine the effect of this training tool in a lab setting. The users are asked to watch several video clips to evoke an agitated state and then try to be calm by using this device. The results will be compared to the users ability to regulate their emotions without any visual tools. The longer term goal of this project is to develop a training tool, to teach people how to regulate their emotions more effectively in stressful situations.

Joinery: Parametric Joint Generation for Laser Cut Assemblies

Laser cutting is widely used by industrial designers and mechanical engineers as a rapid modeling tool. However, designing and fabricating laser cut assemblies can be a complex and tedious process, especially for novice designers. Through our research, we developed Joinery, a parametric joint generation tool for laser cut assemblies. Through Joinery, designers simply define connections between parts of an assembly, while the system generates the joints. Joinery supports fabrication-aware design through six different joint profiles that cater to different material and design needs. In this paper, we illustrate the use of Joinery as a creativity support tool in an industrial design process, and present several artifacts resulting from the tool. In addition, we discuss our findings from deploying this system in a college-level industrial design class.

Design of intelligent emotion feedback to assist users regulate emotions: Framework and principles

Positive environmental emotion feedback is important to influence the brain and behaviors. By measuring emotional signals and providing affective neurofeedback, people can be better aware of their emotional state in real time. However, such direct mapping does not necessarily motivate peoples emotion regulation effort. We introduce two levels of emotion feedback: an augmentation level that indicates direct feedback mapping and an intervention level which means feedback output is dynamically adapted with the regulation process. For the purpose of emotion regulation, this research summarizes the framework of emotion feedback design by adding new components that involve feature wrapping, mapping to output representation and interactive interface representation. By this means, the concept of intelligent emotion feedback is illustrated that not only enhances emotion regulation motivation but also considers subject and trial variability based on individual calibration and learning. An affective Brain-computer Interface technique is used to design the prototype among alternatives. Experimental tests and model simulation are planned for further evaluation.