Jonathan Hey

Pervasive computing in sports training

Our system involves a table tennis practice table where one-half of the table in the vertical position returns the players shots. We use a digital projector calibrated with the tables vertical half, a digital video camera, and a vibration detector mounted on the table. When a ball strikes the wall, the vibration detector triggers the camera to photograph the wall. Our system processes the photograph and projects an image of the balls impact location onto the wall. The system can also project statistics during play. We designed it to be low cost, to minimize setup time, and to maximize portability. We envisage that the system could work for many interactive games and sports, such as regular tennis, darts, and soccer.

Metaphors in Conceptual Design

A metaphor allows us to understand one concept in terms of another, enriching our mental imagery and imbuing concepts with meaningful attributes. Metaphors are well studied in design, for example, in branding, communication and the design of computer interfaces. Less well appreciated is that our understanding of fundamental design concepts, including design itself, is metaphorical. When we treat design as a process of exploration or when we get together to “bounce ideas off each other” we understand the abstract concepts of design and ideas metaphorically; ideas don’t literally bounce, nor are we literally exploring when we design. Our research is a descriptive study of the metaphors employed in design. It is the first phase in a longer research effort to understand the impact of design metaphors on creativity. We investigated whether design authors employed different metaphors for the overall design process and consequently for core design concepts. To address this hypothesis we analyzed the language used in the concept generation chapters of nine widely used engineering design textbooks. We coded each metaphorical phrase, such as “finding another route to a solution”, and determined the core metaphors in use for common design concepts including, ideas, problems, solutions, concepts, design, the design process, user needs and others. We confirmed that authors with differing views of design do indeed emphasize different metaphors for core design concepts. We close by discussing the implications of some common metaphors, in particular that Ideas Are Physical Objects.© 2007 ASME

Design Team Framing: Paths and Principles

This paper addresses two major challenges new product development teams face in making a product people want. The first challenge is to frame the design situation based on a real need of a customer. The second challenge is to get everyone on the team in agreement about what that framing is — everyone needs to be on the same page about what it is they’re doing. Yet these two challenges are not independent, they are intertwined with each other, connected by the concrete research and sharing activities the teams perform. We introduce a framework to help understand the path of a design team along these two dimensions as well as illustrations of the three most common paths observed among graduate multidisciplinary new product development teams as supported by interviews and survey data. These case studies form the basis of four themes to help teams navigate the new product development process.© 2008 ASME

Informal health and legal rights education in rural, agricultural communities using mobile devices

The focus of this work is on the design of a system for informal education in rural, farmworker populations using mobile devices. We have conducted needs assessment with farmworkers in the California Central Valley in conjunction with engineering and industrial design students as part of a service learning initiative. The community, working with the students, identified key needs related to accessing information, emphasizing health and legal rights. We propose the possibility of wireless access to digital libraries for access to this information. We discuss an appropriate system design using mobile phones and future plans for user testing with the community. We stress the importance of continually working with the community to develop relevant and sustainable solutions.

Meta4acle: Generating Compelling Metaphors for Design

Metaphors have successfully been used by new product development and design teams to help frame the design situation and communicate new products to stakeholders. Yet, the process of finding a compelling metaphor often turns upon stumbling upon it or a flash of insight from a team member. We present Meta4acle: a Metaphor Exploration Tool for design that suggests possible metaphors to make the process more one of ‘seeking out’ than ‘stumbling upon’ an effective metaphor. The tool takes data about the project in the form of a title, domain and key associations required of the metaphor and returns suggestions from a database of possible metaphor sources. We built a Meta4acle prototype and evaluated it with positive results for three existing design case studies. We present plans for its full implementation and evaluation.Copyright