Some interesting comparisons between the two groups' surveys
- Task 1
- 57% on Map Table strongly agreed they “contributed to the task at hand” compared to 38% on the laptop
- 57% on Map Table strongly agreed they “agreed with the group’s final answer” compared to 25% on the laptop
- 57% on Map Table disagreed that they “would have preferred to work by myself compared to 38% on the laptop being neutral
*[ the previous three points support that the Map Table encourages group participation and unity more so than a laptop]
- Task 2
- 86% on Map Table agreed they “would enjoy doing more tasks with my group on this interface again compared to 57% on the laptop disagreed
( this is in light that those who did Task 2 on the Map Table used it after the laptop and those who did Task 2 on the laptop used it after the Map Table)
*[the previous point supports that the Map Table is a more enjoyable interface for groups than a laptop]
- 71% on Map Table agreed they “agreed with the group’s final answer” compared to 43% on the laptop
- 85.7% on the Map Table (after using the laptop first) said they generally found the news/information they were looking for most of the time compared to 28.6% on the Laptop (after using the Map Table first)
*[the previous point supports that the Map Table is a better tool for groups searching for news than a laptop, emphasized after using the laptop]
- For the Map Table 1st group
- working on the Map Table first, 6 out of 7 (the majority) said they generally found the news/information they were looking for sometimes or most of the time
- then working with the laptop, 3 out of 7 said they generally found the news/information they were looking for sometimes or most of the time (the majority, 3 out of 7, saying once in a while)
*[the previous two points supports that the MapTable is a better tool for groups searching for news than a laptop, emphasized after using the laptop]
Due to technical difficulties (why can't PCs recognize .jpg for goodness sakes??) I'm writing up some observatiosn from the photos we took during the study.
General Observations
-Pointing to Laptop screen is much easier because of proximity, but also difficult because of screen size. Pointing with the Map Table is more difficult because of distance table creates between users and the display. However size makes larger gestures more understandable since hand is smaller than display, gesturing is more presice.
-With the Laptop, one person retains control of the mouse/keyboard. A smiliar situation occurs with the Map Table with specific tasks, however in the free-use time changes of control occured much more frequently. Perhaps a free-use of the laptop vs. free-use of the map table would be a more revealing comparison. Directed tasks puts people into "efficiency" mode, when assigning roles such as single control of the puck is more efficient than shared control.
-To see the Laptop, people have to gather closely together, all aiming for the same view of the main person controlling the laptop. This does not occur with the MapTable, since everyone has a clear view of displayed information from where they are standing. However, to reach countries on the other side of the world, they sometimes have to lean across other people or lean on the table, which can obstruct the view of other users. Many people also generally like to lean on the table, which may be a result of table height.
-Users have to lean over in order to see/select small countries. This can obstruct others' views, and also be more of a physical strain on the user if done in repeated use.
-Person who writes sometimes sits down. This could be to make more room for the other users, or also because a more directed/focused task as the ones we gave them requires sitting.
-"Backseat Drivers" in the Laptop use gesture and vocal commands in an effort to control the mouse/keyboard. This is less necessary with the Map Table, however physical gestures are still necessary to show/point out specific content. The distance between the user and the display is too far in the Map Table because the Table is in the way.
Go to the Extended Entry for a group-by-group analysis (which, honestly, is a bit less detailed than this)
1:00
-Pointing to a Laptop screen is easier because of proximity, but also more difficult because of screen size.
-Laptop users all have to lean in (if not initially, then gradually) to see the contents of the screen
-One person retains control of the mouse/keyboard. (Other users remotely control the mouse/keyboard by giving verbal commands or pointing where the mouse should go)
*the initial map-table pictures didn't work, but one thing I did notice was that when people initially pick up the puck, they place it, and then seperately push the button. After a while, people naturally picked it up and used it a bit more like a mouse.
2:00
Map Table
-When lined up in a row, people on the ends have to lean over a lot to reach the other end of the world
-Users have to bend over to select small countries
LapTop
-User got frustrated with using the mouse instead of the trackpad (especially for small motions)
-Have to gather around to see the screen, lean on the table
3:00
LapTop
-Person who writes must go between two small surfaces (their paper and the laptop)
MapTable
-Much easier for everyone to see the large screen (despite place at the table)
-Group gathers around the area of the map instead of the Laptop area. However, map is much larger therefore is easier to gather around (generally)
6:30
MapTable
-People have to bend over a lot in order to see and select countries (especially the small ones)
-Person who writes is sitting down in the back (to make way for those navigating the table)
7:30
MapTable
-People like to lean on the table
-Sometimes people leaning on table interferes with how they see the information
-Distance between table and display is too far for proper gesturing. Not everyone can gesture
I compiled some of the interesting results Lora and I found from the survey monkey data
On the averaged surveys (maptop first + laptop first)...
Map Table had higher averages for
- contributed to the task
- would enjoy doing more taks with group on this interface again
- would not prefer to work by myself
- agreed with the group's final answer
- was able to select the country/content I wanted
- wanted more cotnrol over the selection of news stories
* note the last two points. We interpret this to mean that people felt that had more control over the information they found on the Map Table vs. the laptop but they also wanted more control. Maybe they felt that the Map Table was able to give the user more control but laptops are limited?
- Generally using the Map Table, 64% compared to 53% found the news/information they were looking for "most of the time"
- However 13% compared to 0% "always" found what they were looking for on the laptop
- The Maptop had higher averages for "most of the times" and "sometimes" and lower averages for "once in a while" and 0% for "always"
* We interpret this to mean that using the laptop is a "hit or miss" way of navigation. If you find something then it can be exactly what you want because you searched for it but you are also more likely to find nothing or irrevalant information. The Map Table you always find something because it always give you back a news website but it can't always be exactly what you are looking for because it returns sites that aren't specefic to anything except country.
- 37% had difficulty "selecting the correct country" (esp. small countries according to comments
- 33% had difficulty "navigating the displayed news" (because of the trackball which comments show is very unpopular
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
- all people on laptop go to Google News-- we should look at it
- some people would like to sit (8 min. too long to stand?)
- but these tended to be the people writing! can't see map while sitting?
- role are very divided and not much sharing of object or trackball
- two people on left can share object but third person on right usually doesn't
- two people on right can share trackball but usually third person controls
- people point to the vertical screen to gesture, seems like they want to be closer
- people lean on the table to look at the map more closely
- share object during free time, but not during task
- visited more sites and countries on Map Table
- problems with group use
- third person on right (see above)
- hard to communicate to others what you are looking at on vertical screen
- discord between those reading and who is clicking
- discord betwen who is clicking and who is telling where to click
note: these discord things only verbalized in one group
TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS
- trackball is bad
- sometimes clicking doesn't work: people have to click twice to get news
- fix coutnry name display so doesn't display all clicked but only most recent
- have to explain top, bottem, and small islands don't work
- problems clicking on little countries in NW Africa
- "United KingdoN "
- check Central Af. Rep. and Nigeria websites
Things people wanted...
- every country
- back button function?
- keyboard?
- multiple windows (used a lot on laptop)
- cross hatch on object/ more exact way of selecting country
_______________Written Observations: Full text
Group 1
Map Table:
- said didn't like the trackball
- person in front of trackbal is the one who uses it
- someone pulled up a chair to sit it (don't like standing)
- person who writes works the trackball
Laptop:
- returned to news saw from before on the Map table
- keep returning to google multiple times
- tried different international newspaper websites (al jazeera)
- used multiple windows to tab through
- a lot of discussion about where to go (more so then on Map Table)
- set up defined roles: 1 person writes, 1 in control, 1 on lookout
Group 2
Free time:
- played with clicking on a lot of countires very quickly: messed up country name display goes through all of them
- thrid person had to be offered before tried using object
Map Table:
- fixed roles: 1 person writes, 1 trackball, 1 object
- searched entire page, scrolling through map trackball
- third person writing awkwardly pushed to side by person using trackball |_____| o_|
X X X
- people suggest which countries to go to
Laptop:
- suggest specific stories to search for (prior knowledge)
- open new indows
- look into and read stories in detail
- discussed level of importance of stories, if they were a "big deal"
- ask each other if they agree
- more tension: task or laptop?
Group 3
Free time:
- people all lean on table to see the map more clearly
Map Table:
- search for news by region/continents, i.e. all the countries in South America
- split up control in the beginning
- had trouble using the trackball
- mentioned lack of ability to type
- evaluated countries by "who would care"
- said it was "nice to know which counties are close to each other"
- scrolled through news searching
- "being so close to the screen makes it hard to read it"
- only one change of trackball control and was verbally decided
- person who was "scanning" tried to encourage others to look at news as well
Laptop:
- need to arrange chairs and move around for eveyone to see: lean/shift chairs towards central user
- users issue "commands" to the central keyboarder: play the mouse with gesture, lean back and verbally dictate
- delegate who does what role to start with
- discuss which countries are in the region and which news stories they have heard of
- also go to international newspapers- saw that previous group went to al jazeera
Group 4
Laptop:
- designate positons - computer, no.2 and backseat driver
- google news
- uses news listings and not into coverage much
- runs out of options, lots of repetition after a while of sites
- looks at international newspapers afer intial google search
- is sustained interst/particpation in activity an indicator?
- finished witth nearly 2 min. left
- central person at keyboard has control, others dictate what to type, where to point mouse
- discussed types of news sites to go- can't go to foreign language ones don't understand
Map Table:
- click and step back to digeset
- one for trackball and one for object
- collects data before writing trends on sheet of paper
- date of news important
- some disagreements about equpiment
- person writing sits down
Group 5
Laptop:
- afer searching for ______ (lora?) News, Taiwan Times, Int'l sites one by one, specefic newspaper pages
- look at NPR
- Google, lists countries from sources there
- very quiet, little speaking or gesture, mostly mouse and all watch the screen
- gesturing ____ freed from search engine, more vocal
Free time:
- thrid person on right never does much
Map Table:
- people point to the vertical screen a lot to gesture
- people lean on table a lot to rest (would like chairs?)
- said pointer needs to be more accurate
- asked "what has ties to the Middle East?"
- mentioned lack of a "back" button: clicked on country again to perform or right click on trackball
- disagreements about what is the Middle East
Group 6
Laptop:
- used google to search for news sources for different countries, i.e. "[country] news" (didn't know about Google news?)
- positioning problems with chairs
- look at each news website using the search function
- decided to go by region, "pick a continent"
Free time:
- said "the map is tiny"
- lean over map to see better
- impressed by Bhutan
Map Table:
- take notes, the top three stories from each country and then match up
- assign roles
- no back function
- pointing/ gesturing to veritcal screen: hard to indicate/point
- disagreements: clicked on different country while others still reading news
- apologizing because one person using object and other telling where to go don't always match up
___________________________________
Task 1
Laptop more succesful at task 1
Map Table: 7, 6, 5
Laptop: 14 13, 6
- generally their countries spanned more continents
- most used a search function to find mention of it
- advantage because more newspapers for each country
Task 2
Map Table more succseful at task 2
Laptop: 5, 3, 2
quality scores: 4, 2.5, 1.5
Map Table: 5, 4, 4
quality scores: 2.5, 2.5, 3.5
Group 1
- 2 suicide bombers in Israel
- Israel agrees to hand over cities to Palestine
Group 2
- Israel withdrawing from 4 West Bank cities within 2 weeks
- US apology for mosque-flag incident
- ongoing chaos in Iraq (clerical condemnation, GIs dying)
- UN okays Iraqi Governing (?) Council
- Libya owns up to Lockerbie
Group 3
- Isreal released 75 Palestinian prisoners
- Baghdad riot over flag, mosque, stones
- Israel assassinated Islamic Jihad leader
Group 4
- Libya deal
- soldiers killed in Iraq
- Isreal peace plan not working
- two Al Qaeda operatives arrested
[ not a ME story... Power outage in NYC]
Group 5
- Reports on 2 attacks US with Baghdad
- Lockerbie Deal with Lybia
- Sharon v. Abbos (?)
- Palestinian prisoners - 75
- Saudi diplomat expelled
[ sixth answer can't read... slists rolley?]
Group 6
- Libya acusses France
- Brit soldier killed in Iraq
- Saudi Crown Prince uproot terror
- Troops kill Jihad's Hebron chief
It's been a while...
On Thursday, iX presented at a Design X meeting at the Center for Design Research. We went over a brief introduction, what our project generally is (and aims to do), a technical explination of how it does it, and future developments. We had some really good comments from the group about the table's future in CDR (it should be an ongoing, "residential" demo), its potential for future development (such as Ozgur's suggestion of adapting the news sites into design/ design research sites around the world), and possible funding/corporate interest (perhaps from news sites like Yahoo! or Google). We're doing a smiliar (although not really the same) presentation for the iWork/HCI group on Wednesday, but by then we'll have the results of our...
... User study that we did yesterday (Friday). It went really well but was really looong for myself and Corina (we put in an 11 hour day!). It was stressful at times, but a general success, I'd say, especially considering it was our very first attempt at a user study. User Studies are really hard and detailed and tricky to deal with, and we ran in to a lot of problems along the way (due to a malfunctional computer, we did lose some data, unfortunately) but all in all it was a success. Corina and I went over some of the results and data today (the surveys, mostly) and got a lot of really, really good feedback.
Speaking of feedback! If any of our readers out there have seen us present or did our user study, please comment on our table! We'd love to hear from you, and the more feedback, the better!
don't go on unless not in user study
0 min.
>
> [Intro, Consent forms]
> Read through consent form with them
Ask if they have questions
> 3 min.
>
> [Lead over to table, Tutorial, free time]
>
> "This is our Map-News Table. It displays local news from every country
> in the world. You select a country using this object by pressing the
> dome shaped button. You should sight down the cross hatch. The country
> name and a website of a news from that country will appear. You can
> navigate the vertical display with this trackball. You are going to
> have five mintues to try it out.
>
> 9 min.
>
> [Explain Task 1, hand out paper, do task 1]
>
> "You are compiling news stories for newsletters from regions we will specify to tell English-speakers what the major news in those areas are. The goal is to find the top five stories for as many regions as you can. You are going to have
> eight minutes. Record the news stories on this piece of paper.
>
> 18 min.
>
> [Go over to laptop, explain task 2, hand out paper, do task 2]
>
> You can use the internet on this computer to find news. Use any method
> you like.
>
> "You are writing a report to present to the UN that provides a balanced view of ____ new story that is occurring in _______ region. The goal is to find the balanced headlines to the news that you would use in the report. You are going to have eight
> minutes. Record the headlines on this sheet of paper.
>
> 27 min.
>
> [go to office, complete Survey, Thank you]
>
> You are now going to complete an online survey. Thank you for
> particpating.
Presentation Outline
Lora, I've added in your intro for you to say the abstract I wrote so we can explain our mission and so on.
-----Presentation Outline----
L:
- Introduction/About: 4 undergraduates. Two months. One table. No money
(we accept tips and food). (provide contact information)
- Mission and what the table is
- Plan for the presentation
L:
General Idea of the News Table:
-A table with "spirit" (Furnichat)
-Initially began with "A table covered in newspapers that shows the
news"... but how? Physical Interface (mixed with the "glasses table",
resembling the Onomy wall, of sorts)
-Point of View: A table that emphasises international persepctive by
bringing news from all over the world through a graphical interface
Research (before and after):
M:Before--General Tables and Interactive Tables: Looking at table
use, possibilities of interactive tables, what they were trying to
solve, etc. (MERL DiamondTouch/Spin), lazy susan MOMA table,
C:After-- Object Tracking, Physical Interfaces: RFIDs, eBeam/Mimeo,
mention specific tables like the sense table, info table, metadesk
Key Design Decisions:
-Digital vs. Physical Map
-Dividing Map into countries or regions?
-What kind of media? TV/newspaper/radio
-English Translations of Foreign Newspapers so that all is understood
-ImageMap in HTML (instead of Java), eBeams (instead of RFID)
-Vertical Screen and Horizontal Surface (partially inspired from Ping
Pong tables we had seen earlier)
-Country Name Display: Why it's important, why we put it where we
did. Front Projection? Over the Country?
-Table Height (sitting or standing),
Storyboard (walk through of how to use it):
-Walk-through
-Take Picutres/ Draw Pictures of how to use it
Technical Overview:
J: General Structure of EventHeap/Multibrowsing, Javascript/
Programming, with News Sites and Country Names
C:-The Object: eBeams and Object Tracking. Also useful for other
interactive surfaces in place of a touch screen.
M:-Proximity Sensor
User Studies:
Coming soon! Please participate if interested.
(include what we looked for and any results for HCI meeting)
Potential for Future Development:
-Java application instead of HTML Document: Faster loading time,
smoother transition to Event Heap and eBeams, potential for more
features
-Add a different database of links so that Map serves another use,
such as International Museums, Designers around the world, Tops
around the world, anything around the world
-other potential applications linking physical objects/interfaces
with content... perhaps software that allows quick linking, creation
of new interfaces?
-Easier/Simpler Navagation of the Vertical Display: currently have a
Trackball, but there has to be a better, more natural way of
transitioning between the horizontal and vertical interfaces
-Larry Leifer's point of view of how the table will faciliate group
discussions about world news because the large news display allows
for a group forum. In addition, other applications that cannot be
forseen until users begin to interact with the table.
M: Proximity Sensor Features
Demo.
Here is a rough draft of key design decisions. I suspect I'm missing quite a few.
Monica ~ can you please add on key decisions used in flash and the sensors? I think that you will be able to explain it all better than I can. It should be up tonight (wednesday) so Lora can integrate it into the Keynote/PowerPoint presentation tomorrow...
Lora ~ can you please assign time slots for our user study?
All iXers ~ please add, edit, clarify, etc. You can also just leave a note here to me (or email or IM me) telling me what topics I'm missing and I'll write them up myself.
Expect more from me later today on the User Study.
Key Design Decisions
The mission of the Map-News-Table is to increase awareness of current events from an international perspective. From the start, we knew we wanted some kind of map, upon which users could slide a physical object to select regions to find out news. We weren’t at all sure about the specifics, or how our idea would be implemented.
Our first major design decision was whether to use a digital map or a physical map. A digital map allows for many more features than a physical map. For example, we could zoom in on small countries, highlight the country that the object is currently hovering over, display the name of the country, and display basic information about the country. However, a digital map would require a projection system, making it more expensive than a physical map and requiring more energy to run. While the digital map could easily be designed using the iRoom, we wanted to make sure our final product could be used without much difficulty in other environments such as libraries and student unions. Moreover, a physical map has some affordances that a digital map does not. While a physical map cannot zoom, there is something to be said for having the entire world in front of the user, all the time. It forces the user to keep a global perspective and not get too involved in one country or one small region. Also, people like paper, and people like traditional paper maps. It is fun to look at a map and see the details – city names, rivers, and so on – that would be hard to include on a digital map. And a paper map somehow seems more real, more tangible, than a digital projection. We hope that the tangible nature of non-digital objects will draw the user to the Map-News-Table and hold the user’s attention longer than yet another computer screen. While a physical map does not have as many possibilities for development as a digital map, we felt that the affordances it does have are more valuable than those of a digital map, so we opted to go with it.
Once we chose to use a physical map, it became clear that a country-based selection system would work best, since that is how the map itself is divided. So, we had to find one media source for each country. Next, we discussed what media to use to present the news. We considered newspapers, television, and radio. We decided that we would use online newspapers, since radio and television could be inappropriate in some settings, such as a silent library. We also tried to find English translations of foreign newspapers whenever possible, so we could maintain a global perspective while still providing understandable news.
We had a lot more to figure out to get what we wanted to happen to actually work. We had to figure out how to do object tracking, and how to translate position information into “The object is hovering over Country X” and “Country X was just selected”. We also had to figure out how to get this information to lead in turn to projection of news and display of the country name.
We decided to make an image map in html, outlining each country area (this is explained more in the technical coding walkthrough). We use eBeam technology to capture the object’s “clicks” (as described in Corina’s section) because the absolute positioning makes it easy to calibrate with our map webpage. We wanted to use rollover to display the name of the country the object is hovering over, to make it easy for the user to know what country it is that he/she will select on a click. However, eBeams do not support rollover technology; still, we chose to make our code using rollover so that in the future, if we figure out how to get the hardware to work, the country being rolled-over will automatically have its country name displayed. Perhaps, given more time, we could find another hardware option that would work better than the eBeams. As it is, however, there is no rollover capability so both the country name and the news site are displayed when that country region is clicked on with our puck (the object).
In order to get the country name and news site, we took advantage of the iROS multibrowse capability. The news we chose to multibrowse to a lightbox, since the large screen makes it easy to see the news, especially when more than one person is at the table at one time. Also, it keeps input (the map and puck) separate from output (the news). We chose to have a similarly large map so that it would not be hard to find news about small countries, and so that there would be a large space at the table at which groups could gather.
However, the setup of the country name display was not so easy to decide. We considered front and rear projection. We also considered projecting onto the puck itself, projecting on the map next to the puck, projecting onto the bottom corner of the map, projecting along the top of the map, projecting on a tilted screen between the map and the lightbox, and even just displaying the country name on the lightbox on a separate part of the screen from the news. We finally settled on rear projection to a tilted screen at the back of the map, between the table and the lightbox. We chose rear projection because then we could avoid hanging any projectors or mirrors, which can be earthquake hazards. We chose a tilted screen as a kind of intermediate between the horizontal map and the vertical news display screen. This is particularly intuitive in the table’s current incarnation, without rollover, since a person clicks on the horizontal table, looks to the tilted screen to check the name of the country he/she selected, and then continues looking up to the vertical screen displaying the news. With rollover, the user would go between the flat map and the tilted projection screen quite a bit; however, the screen is very close to the map and tilted right at the user, making it very easy to go back and forth between the two.
Title of Our Presentation : A "Whole News World": Using a Physical Interface to Navigate International News Sites
Abstract/Intro
A "Whole News World": Using a Physical Interface to Navigate International News Sites
The "Whole News World Table" presents international news from local newspapers through a physical world map interface. Using a puck-shaped object, users select any country in the world and a representative online news sources (in English) is displayed on a lightbox in front of them. In other words, the table is a geographically navigated database of international news sites. Our mission is to increase the user's awareness of global current events from an international perspecitve. Most people only read news from their country's news services about domestic issues or the few "hotspot" areas of the world. Our table, however, emphasizes the fact that even if we do not usually come across news from other areas of the world, things are happening there that have global impact. We envision the table being used in libraries, schools, or other public places; anywhere someone might pass by it, stop for a few moments, and find out a bit of news.
In our presentation, we are going to review the research leading up to our idea, key design decision, a technical overview of the table, the potential for future developments, and conclude with a demonstration.
We started out with the idea of designing an "interactive table." Researching this field, we learned more about both tables in general and the interactive sort. We observed people at tables, photographed them and experimented ourselves with field trips to places such as dim sum, a sushi boat restaurant and a milkshake counter. Through online research, we learned about a variety of interactive tables such as MERL's DiamondSpin, Sony's InfoTable and Stanford's own iTable. The conclusion of this research and benchmarking was learning about how people use tables and what they use them for.
Object Tracking Research to mention:
Wacom tablet: pen tablets and pens: The SenseTable (MIT)
eBeam and Mimio: ultrasonic position capture
LeapFrog and Zowie Intertainment: kid toys that do object tracking
MetaDesk (MIT): infared cameras to recognize objects, rear projectionscreen
RFID: didn't use because couldn't get. Would put ID's in table and have the object be the reciever
InfoTable: video camera ("DeskSat")
User study happening this Friday and Saturday.
(Andy made a good suggestion... we should do a pilot of our user study hopefully Thursday?)
Don't go on unless you are definitely NOT doing our user study!
Two setups: Map table and laptop
Two tasks: Find the top news stories in ____ regions; Find balanced headlines about ____ new story from ______ region
Order of events: intro, tutorial of map table, task 1 on map table, task 2 on laptop, survey - or - intro, task 1 on laptop, tutorial of map table, task 2 on map table, survey
Metrics: how many sites visited, how many countries visited, no. of changes of control of input device (object, mouse, trackball, keyboard), no. of disagreements, "quality" of answer, how many regions they get through (for task 1)
Here's the compiled version of our Technical Documentation.
Go Team!
yay.
corina.
P.S. I've replaced first/second click with explanations of rollover and such. Let me know if I need to change it in any way! I also went through and made a couple small edits here and there. ~Joanna
Our main interface is a physical map of the world laid out on a table. In order to connect this physical map to the news-site links we traced the physical map with all the country borders onto the computer using a whiteboard program. We then made an image map, tracing out each country as a custom-sized hyperlink. Thus, when a country is "clicked," its corresponding news site appears.
To interact with the map we needed an object tracking system or something like an absolute mouse, i.e. an object that could "click" and whose movement was linked to a specific position on the computer. This was necessary so that navigating on the physical map would correspond to navigating the digital image of the map that we created.
We used eBeam (System 1) to accomplish this. EBeams are designed to capture and send whiteboard images and eBeam mice are used to navigate images on lightboxes. The hardware consists of eBeam pens, which emit sounds when depressed, and two eBeam pods placed on the corners of the work area, which recieve the sounds and triangulate the pens' position from them. This information is sent to the computer connected to the eBeam pods. For the same function with a different form factor, we removed the essential parts of the eBeam pen, the sound-emitting part, chip, and battery attachment from the plastic pen casing and put them into a plastic object we designed. EBeams are suited for our table because they have both the ability to click on links and absolute positioning, i.e. the area that they navigate is the same as the computer screen's.
There are four computers involved with the Map- News- Table. The table's computer (which recieves info from the eBeams and contains the image map), iLoft4 (which houses the Event Heap server), iLoft1 (which displays the country name), and iLoft2 (which displays the news websites). They are all connected over the network.
The Map-News-Table takes advantage of existing iRoom technologies and applies them to its advantage, most notably the ability to Multibrowse, or remotely control the content of internet browsers between computers. All this is done using the Event Heap system. The actual Event Heap is housed on a server (iLoft4), which listens for events that connected computers post on the Event Heap. The Event Heap then turns around and issues commands to other connected computers who are running Butler Programs which are able to recieve and execute Event Heap command. (Check explanation with one already online or published)
Because we initially developed the Map-News-Table in HTML, the best and cleanest method of accessing and posting events on the Event Heap without rewriting the entire interface in Java is to call up the Apache Server on the Event Heap through "fatlinks". The javascript function that the countries are independently image mapped to constructs a "fatlink", a URL that instructs the Apache Server to post an event to the Event Heap with the designated URL to the proper display.
Using Javascript, we programmed our image map page to multibrowse to one of iLoft1 or iLoft2 based on either rollover or click. We use a mouseover function to multibrowse the country name to a projector, and a click function to multibrowse the newspaper link to a vertical screen. However, eBeam hardware difficulties prevent rollover without clicking, causing the rollover to be effectively an "onClick" function, just like the newspaper multibrowse function. We have kept the rollover code so that in the future, should the hardware difficulties be overcome, rollover will automatically work. As it is, each region calls the appropriate javascript function when selected by the eBeam puck, projecting the country name to iLoft1 and multibrowsing the country's news site to iLoft2.
To manage the varying country names, we use the Tomcat server to create webpages with dynamic content. This allows us to control the content of the page that iLoft 1 is displaying, without having a unique webpage for each country.
The code for the country name display first creates a link by appending the country name to the JavaServer Page (JSP) URL. Next, this link is inserted into a fatlink so that it will multibrowse to iLoft1 (the projector). A window is opened with this fatlink as the target URL. The JavaServer Page is stored on Tomcat on the iLoft’s Event Heap server. Tomcat is a servlet container that is able to read in the parameter that has been appendend to the URL and make the parameter available to the JSP webpage. When the page loads, it includes the country name in its URL.
In order for the country name to be displayed, we set up a rear projection onto a surface attached to the table. We made a screen out of vellum with a foam core frame and attached this with foam core to the edge of the table farthest from the user. We placed the projector under the table and setup a mirror to reflect the image up. The country name thus is displayed across the top of the map on a screen tilted toward the user.
In the case of the news site, we call up a news site and direct it to iLoft 2 (which is displayed on a lightbox) where iLoft 2 then sees the posted event and multibrowses that link on the display.
In detail, the function that displays the news site takes a parameter passed from the image map. The variable that is passed has the name of whatever country is being selected. In a linked JavaScript file, we have a list which declares country names as variables and assigns to them corresponding news website addresses, making it easy and intuitive to update URLs. The news display code uses the URL passed to it to construct a fatlink similar to the one used for the projection display. However, in this case, it multibrowses to iLoft2, the vertical screen. This screen can be navigated using a trackball on the table. This allows interaction with the displayed news.
Also, there is an extra multibrowse event just beforehand. The news display fatlink first opens a “loading” page, so the user knows his/her click has been registered. This recognition of the click is particularly important for some sites that are unusually slow, for which the loading time might otherwise make the user impatient or confused. As soon as the news page begins loading, it replaces the loading page, so there are no extra popup windows to deal with.
One disadvantage of going through the Apache Server and "fat links" is that it creates more of a delay between when the user selects the country and when the news ends up displayed on the vertical screen. With the implementation of a Java interface, the program could include the ability for the the table's computer to post events directly. However, the entire system would operate in exactly the same manner, just without the fatlinks.
One issue we discovered in multibrowsing is that the iWork fatlink constructor webpage always pops up when a new multibrowse window is opened. As we were unable to figure out how to prevent this window from popping up, we decided to instead force it to open in the bottom corner of the screen, so that even though it is there, it does not affect anything. It is off the map, impossible for the user to accidentally click. While this method works, it is a bit of a “hack”, and could definitely be improved in a future version of the Map-News-Table.
EXPLAIN PROXMITY SENSOR PART
Hey guys! So, I've done a rough draft of my code walkthrough. It is very very informal, so it clearly needs a lot of tweaking in terms of style. I'm not sure how understandable it is, if it needs to be even less technical or what. Please feel free to comment/edit. And let me know if I'm forgetting something, if I need to focus more on some particular aspect, etc. Actually, please don't edit. Comments are better because then I can keep track of what has been changed so I know what to go back and fix in Word. Or we can just edit this and keep resaving it online somewhere.... Anyway, let me know what you think!
In this section, I’m going to try to walk you through our code without going into the technical details. Basically, we start with the image map, as described by Corina in her section. Using Javascript, I programmed our image map page to multibrowse based on either rollover, click, or second click. Ideally, we would use a mouseover function to multibrowse the country name to a projector, and a click function to multibrowse the newspaper link to a vertical screen. However, due to eBeam hardware difficulties, we decided to switch these functions to “first click” and “second click”. Each region calls the appropriate javascript function, passing the country name on the first click and that country’s news URL on second click.
Both functions require multibrowsing using fatlinks (as described in Lora’s section).
The “first click” function (including the functions it calls) first creates a link to a JavaServer Page stored on the iLoft’s Event Heap server. Next, this link is inserted into a fatlink so that it will multibrowse to iLoft1 (the projector). Finally, a window is opened with this fatlink as the target URL.
When the page opens, it includes the country name in its URL. The JavaServer page, using Apache’s Tomcat software, is able to access this information much like a servlet. The JavaServer page then displays the country name passed to it. To learn how this display gets from the projector to the table, see Corina’s section.
The “second click” function (including the functions it calls) has a parameter called CountryURL. The variable that is passed has the name of whatever country is being selected. In a linked JavaScript file, we have a list of country names and corresponding news website addresses. We chose to pass the URLs as variables rather than hardcoding them in order to make it easy to update URLs in the future. Rather than having to go through the image map tags, a user can just open up the JavaScript file and replace old URLs. The second click function uses CountryURL to construct a fatlink similar to the one in the “first click” function. However, in this case, it multibrowses to iLoft2, the vertical screen. Also, it includes an extra multibrowse event just beforehand. The “second click” function’s fatlink first opens a “loading” page, so the user knows his/her click has been registered. This recognition of the click is particularly important for some sites that are unusually slow, for which the loading time might otherwise make the user impatient or confused. As soon as the news page begins loading, it replaces the loading page, so there are no extra popup windows to deal with.
One issue we discovered in multibrowsing is that the iWork fatlink constructor webpage always pops up when a new multibrowse window is opened. As we were unable to figure out how to prevent this window from popping up, we decided to instead force it to open in the bottom corner of the screen, so that even though it is there, it does not affect anything. It is off the map, impossible for the user to accidentally click. While this method works, it is a bit of a “hack”, and could definitely be improved in a future version of the Map-News-Table.
Country Name Projection
In order for the country name to be displayed when you pass the object over it we set up rear projection onto a surface attached to the table. We placed the projector under the table and setup a mirror to reflect the image up. We made a screen out of tissue paper with a foam core frame and attached this with foam core to the edge of the table farthest from the user. The country name thus is displayed across the top of the map on a screen tilted toward the user.
Rough draft of eBeam/image map. Feel free to edit/comment.
Our main interface is a physical map of the world laid out on a table. In order to link this physical maps to the new site links we traced the physical map with all the country borders onto the computer using a whiteboard program. We then made an image map, tracing out each country as a custom-sized hyperlink. Thus, when a country was "clicked," its corresponding news site would appear. To interact with the map we needed an object tracking system or something like an absolute mouse, i.e. an object that could "click" and whose movement was linked to a specific position on the computer. This was necessary so that navigating on the physical map would correspond to navigating the digital image of the map that we created. We used eBeam (System 1) to accomplish this. EBeams are designed as to capture and send whiteboard images and eBeam mouses are used to navigate images on lightboxes. The hardware consists of eBeam pens that emit sounds when depressed and two eBeam pods placed on the corners of the work area that recieve the sounds and triangulate the pens position from them. This information is sent to the computer connected to them. We removed the essential parts of the eBeam pen, the sound-emitting part, chip, and battery attachment from the plastic pen casing and put them into an object we designed. EBeams were suited for our table because they have absolute positioning because the area that they navigate is supposed to be the same as the computer screen's and they have the ability to click on links.
I've been watching too many promotional videos for Apple. The following is the result, explaining how the Event Heap and Multibrowsing works.
The Map-News-Table takes advantage of existing iRoom technologies and applies them to its advantage, most notably the ability to Multibrowse, or remotely control the content of internet browsers between computers.
Because we have initially developed the Map-News-Table in HTML, the best and cleanest method of accessing the Event Heap without rewriting the entire interface in Java is to call up the Apache Server on the Event Heap through "fatlinks". Each country is independently image mapped (see Corina's section) to a javascript function (see Joanna's section) which constructs a "fatlink" which instructs the Apache Server to post an event to the Event Heap with the designated URL to the proper display. In the case of the news sites, we call up a news site and direct it to iLoft 2 (which is displayed on a lightbox) where iLoft 2 then sees the posted event and multibrowses that link on the display.
The country name uses a similar system to multibrowse, passing a "fatlink" to the Apache Server which directs a specific URL to a certain display (in this case, iLoft 1 which is displayed through rear-projection to the tilted surface between the table and the lightbox). However, to manage the varying country names, we also use the Tomcat server to create webpages with dynamic content. The URL which we're passing to the Event Heap is directed to a webpage which resides on the Event Heap's own computer, in the form of a Java Server Page. Our URL contains a link as well as arguments which are passed to the page and then executed within the content, displaying the argument which we've passed to the computer. This allows us to control the content of the page that iLoft 1 is displaying, without having 192 webpages, one for each country.
Some disadvantages of going through the Apache Server and "fat links" is that it does create more of a delay between when the user selects the country and when the news ends up displayed on the vertical screen. With the implementation of a Java interface, the program could include the ability for the the Map's computer (ispace-yellow) to post events directly. However, the entire system would operate in exactly the same manner, just without the fatlinks.
Monica is working on setting up a proximity sensor so that when a person approaches the table it will switch from screensaver to how to page mode. (and maybe one day it will say a greeting in different languages... I still have hope for this idea). We acquired the sensor from Wendy's neighbor who does robotics things. We are hoping to get help from the iStuff people so it can work. This is what Wendy said about it. "The sensor has three outputs,
power, ground, and an analog voltage output; the analog voltage scales
with the distance of an object in front of the sensor. Literally all we
need on the other side is a ADC, a microprocessor and a tranciever." Sounds promising.
I'm working on compiling the annotated bibliography
"http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/sun98operational.html"
Operational Transformation in Real-Time
This is a website that *hopefully* should explain how multi-user interfaces like
"http://www.codingmonkeys.de"
Hydra
work.
"http://www.apple.com/isync/"
iSync:
It's software from Apple that lets you 'sync' your palm, cellphone, iPod, Mac, and online account
"http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=381893&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=11059815&CFTOKEN=38064278&ret=1#Fulltext"
Lifestreams
This is a way of organizing computer files more intuitively, kind of like a blog
"http://www.merl.com/areas/aci.php"
MERL Collaborative Interaction main page
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm
As We May ThinK by Vannevar Bush
COOL LOOKING STUFF
"http://www.limn.com/collections.html"
Limn: Super-Nifty Tableshttp. Limn has links to furniture from tons of designers. Nothing is particularly high tech, but the design is very interesting. Modern furniture with some cool designs like lift out table tops.
"http://www.dwr.com"
Design Within Reach
"http://www.restorationhardware.com"
Restoration Harware
"http://www.chiasso.com/home/home.asp"
Chiasso
Mix of interesting furniture and cute accessories.
"http://www.alessi.it/designers/index.htm"
Alessi
Look particularly at Stefano Giovannoni, Stefano Pirovano, and Guido Venturini.
"http://www.crd.rca.ac.uk/dunne-raby/index.html"
Design Noir
The creators of the GPS table that says it's "lost" when it can't get a signal. However, there is suprisingly little at this website about that particular project, called Placebo furniture and which was documented in The Secret Life of Electronic Objects
PAPERS ABOUT TABLES
"http://ipsi.fhg.de/ambiente/collabtablewallws/index.html"
Ubicomp workshop on tables and walls
"http://www.dsv.su.se/FEEL/zurich/Item_6-Design_of_an_interactive_table.pdf"
Thesis comparing different types of interactive tables
"http://www.merl.com/papers/TR2002-01"
Visualization Techniques for Circular Tabletop Interfaces
"http://depts.washington.edu/dmachine/digitaldesk/projects.html#studiodesk"
Summary of Reviewed 'Digital' Desks and Related Projects
Has basic info and links to programs at Cornell, Brown, Berkeley, Cambridge, Xerox, Tan (Germany), and Fakespace Systems
"http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~ame/projects/publications/desk.pdf"
Comparison of Digital Desk Sizes<
"http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~krugerj/cpsc502/ProjectProposal.htm"
The e-Table: Exploring Collaborative Interaction on a Horizontal Display
(has a very good bibliography)
"http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~sdscott/cscw/cscw2002/karen_grant.pdf"
FLEXIBLE, COLLABORATIVE ORGANIZATION ON A TABLETOP
INTERACTIVE TABLES
"http://www.itps.nu/pdf/holmquist.pdf"
Weight-Sensing Table (See slide 47)
"http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/wellner93interacting.html"
Interacting with Paper on the Digital Desk, plus linkS
By Pierre Wellner, at Cambridge and Xerox EuroPARC. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, cites this paper. It is an overhead projection desk that tries to enhance paper use by allowing the paper world to interact with the digital world. Some applications are copying numbers into a calculator, translation, copying & pasting, and remote shared editing of documents.
"http://www-cdr.stanford.edu/~wendyju/cs377f/submission.pdf"
Origami Desk
Wendy's project, which helped people learn to make origami shapes through an overhead projection onto a table with actual origami paper
http://interactivity.stanford.edu/projects/itable.html
iTable (Stanford Interactivity Lab)
A computer-based tabletop display that is part of the iRoom.
interested in interaction (between user and computer) and collaboration (between multiple users)
use for sorting photos, viewing multi-perspective images e.g. maps, blueprints
limited application because meant for multi-user but not really suited for multi-interaction
http://www.theredshift-xfr.com/tilty_tables.html
The Tilty Tables (XFR)
projected image on table that has an accelerometer to measure tilt
navigate by tilting table
application: viewing large document, infinite plane of tall tales, and virtual ball that rolls over hotspots which makes the word "peace" pop up
cool table... not as much useful as interesting
http://www.media.mit.edu/pia/counteractive/
CounterActive (MIT Media Lab)
interactive cookbook in a kitchen counter
can press on words or hotspots and view recipes, movies, etc.
good example of specfic purpose: interface closes matches application-- you are not cooking with the computer, it's just a part of the counter
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/393/part3/omojola.html
Lazy Susan Interactive Table (MOMA and MIT Media Lab)
dining room table with place settings of projected image and a lazy susan with to display coasters and a center to share information
smart space in museum to replace traditional computer kiosk
attach information to physical object so interacting with information and not a computer (parallel to CounterActive)
http://www.merl.com/projects/DiamondTouch/
Diamond Touch (MERL)
simultaneous, mutli-user, touch input device (can use finger to draw and to select images)
can identify who is touching where which is necessary for simultaneous use
limited to one perspecitve (people should be viewing from the same side)
http://www.merl.com/projects/diamondspin/
Diamond Spin (MERL)
digitally augmented interactive tabletop environment
aim to incorporate the social informality, simplicity, and casualness of around-the-table interaction
polar coordinate system allow rotation of individual items so continuous orientation among multiple people
{
Corina and I went to the iRoom meeting today where we listened to Chia Shen from MERL (Mistubishi Electronic Research Laboratory) talk about Diamond Touch and Diamond Spin technology. Unfortunately we didn't get to see all of her slides (she had to pass up several because of time constraints), however we should probably contact her to find out more about Diamond Touch. It looks like MERL has already done a lot of preliminary research on the use of tables in a high-tech society, so their insights into the use of tables in meeting/group interaction contexts would be invaluable. Also, a Stanford student (? grad student ?) is also working on the project as an intern this summer on the multi-user aspect, and may be able to give us some advice/ direction.
In the meeting, she also brought up an interesting concept of Private vs. Public vs. Personal space. Private is something no one else can visually see or visually manipulate. Personal is something everyone can see but no one can manipulate (such as a paper that is oriented exclusively in your direction; others can see it and know it's there, but they can't look at it). Public is something that others can see and manipulate (but its ownership is always "belonging" to one person). An interesting thought, especially since it explains how people interact with each other while sitting at a table...
Another cool feature was the "Black Hole" vs. "Central Focus" display modes. "Black Hole" is for when people around the table are during individual work (they found that group interaction shifts between individual and collaborative a lot); the visual display is such that the items on the outside of the circle are larger than the smaller, thumbnails near the center of the circle. For "Central Focus" the group is looking at common items, therefore the items in the center of the display are larger than the smaller thumbnails around the outside.
}
http://www.darmstadt.gmd.de/ambiente/activities/interactable.html
InteracTable (Ambiente)
for the display, discussion, annotation, creation of information objects by a group of 2-6 people
can use gestures, fingers, pens, or infared keyboard to manipulate
http://ipsi.fraunhofer.de/ambiente/paper/2001/UIST-2001-tandler.pdf
ConnecTables (Ambiente)
allows for the coupling of displays so you can go from individual to cooperative work
mobile, networked, context-aware information appliance
"http://www.csl.sony.co.jp/person/rekimoto/papers/chi99.pdf"
InfoTable (Sony, Rekimoto)
This table was in the 56 page thesis along with Stanford's iTable and the InteracTable that we have already discussed, so go to Joanna's link if you want to read what it had to say about this table. Very cool way of connecting portable computers, physical objects, and table/wall projections, the idea being "a spatially continuous workspace for hybrid computing environments." Look at Hyperdragging and the anchored cursor (which solves our "north-pointing" mouse problem).
Back to this great table that uses a video camera as an object recognition sensor. There is one motor-controlled video camera on command of computer that scan over the entire surface (called Desksat a la Landsat, i.e. land sattelite). Second camera is fixed and looks at the entire table and analyzes changes on table and sends the other camera over. They said that the response time is not satisfactory for continuous/realtime object traking
"http://www.cvmt.dk/education/CVE2000.pdf"
The Virtual Round Table (FIT and GMD)
This is along the lines of the holographic imaging over a table surface that we had been wondering about. The system is a 3D stereo visualization using projection glasses. This so far has applications for building construction and urban planning.
"http://nesl.ee.ucla.edu/projects/smarttable/"
Smart Table (NESL at UCLA)
at UCLA, a sub-project of Smart Kindergarten... a different look at smart furniture
"http://www.nadiakhan.com/furnichat/"
Furnichat (Nadia Khan and Sonia Boonphen)
The intro says it all... "The project investigates the potential of talking furniture, in a public space, not only as a form of entertainment, but also as a medium for social interaction and play."
Work by Hiroshi Ishii (and others), mostly at the MIT Media Lab (Tangible Media Group):
“http://tangible.media.mit.edu/papers/Bricks_CHI95/bricks-chi95.pdf”
Bricks: Laying the Foundations for Graspable User Interfaces
This paper introduces the idea of manipulating physical objects on an interactive table, rather than just using a keyboard and mouse. The paper discusses the following advantages of the Graspable UI design (see page 2):
it encourages two handed interactions<
It shifts to more specialized context sensitive input devices
It allows for more parallel input specification by the user, thereby improving the expressiveness or the communication capacity with the computer
We’re good at manipulating physical objects
It externalizes traditionally internal computer representations
It facilitates interactions by making interface elements more direct & manipulable
t takes advantage of humans’ spatial reasoning skills
It affords multi-person, collaborative use
“http://tangible.media.mit.edu/papers/Illuminating_Clay_GRASS/Clay_Trento.pdf”
Illuminating Clay: A Tangible Interface with potential GRASS applications
This is an interactive table with clay on top, so you can play with the clay and build whatever you’re designing. The table has a projector (from above) which will light up the clay in different colors to convey information. It is made for landscape design applications, so the functions that have been implemented so far are all things like elevation, where water would drain, and how much sun each area would get. Maybe it could be adapted to product design?
There are many more papers from the MIT Media Lab Tangible Media Group “http://tangible.media.mit.edu/papers.htm”
http://tangible.media.mit.edu/projects/PingPongPlus/PingPongPlus.html
Ping Pong Plus
Both Wendy and Chia Shen mentioned this. It is a "digitally enhanced" version of ping pong. Through sound sensing, the system tracks the location of the ball hitting the table and then there are different graphic projection applications, e.g. water ripple, painting, and comets. Very fun stuff. Back to this interactive table, it has a sound-based ball tracking system. Microphones surround the table and time values are assigned when they pick up the sound of the ball hitting and these are evaluated by an algorithm to determine location. Not so helpful probably because our object won't make any sound hitting.
OBJECT TRACKING
"http://tangible.media.mit.edu/papers/metaDESK_UIST97/metaDESK_UIST97.pdf"
metaDesk (Tangible Media at MIT Media Lab)
This is a very intersting interactive table and I suggest looking at it because it uses objects on a map as well as the magnifying/ different display function we were envisioning for the glasses table. It mentioned several types of sensors and I haven't figured it all out but there is a computer-vision system, magnetic-field positon sensors and electrical-contact sensors. And apparently a Flock of Birds sensor (no idea)?
Computer vision: the display is like a light box in terms of mirrors and things so there is a camera inside the desk that can track the objects on the desk surface without hand/body obstructions. There is visible-light object tracking and identification which is akin to a "flatbed scanner" where the objects on the surface of the desk were "illuminated with pixels from the back-projected desk display" but there was a problem with this because the digital image of the map got in the way. So then they used an infared optical regime where they would illuminate objects on the desk's surface with security-camera IR LED-arrays mounted within desk and monitor result with another camera with infraed filter and they filled the objects with "hot mirrors".
They also mentioned to monitor the contents of the tray where the objects were stored when not on the display they could use a resistor tag electricially identified by LEGO Dacta Control Lab or scan with electrical switches. This was intersting because it's the idea of tracking what isn't moving.<
"http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/"
Radio Frequency Identification (RIFD)
Place tag on object and it works with a reciever and an antanne to enable the identificaiton of objects and their locations. It seems to have replaced bar codes in some situations and are used to track things like cars, clothing, animals, etc. Because emphasis is on identification, we need to learn more about the type of location information they give and how accurate/specefic is it (since most of the applications mentioned are good for large rather than small areas).
"http://www.merl.com/projects/visual-tags/"
Visual Tags (MERL)
They are working on visual tags like be badges you stick on your shirt to track people.
Zowie Intertainment: Still trying to find info on this one. Its a kids' toy company (now part of LEGO) that incorporated sensing and recognition technology. Good because is supposedly simple and cheap. There is a little play set with like a house and some animals. When you add characters to the set, they appear on your computer and their movements are mirrored on screen and when two characters approach each other they converse. It was mentioned in another paper as having fast, high resolution tracking and its limitation being that the hardware only provides info about identity and positon of objects in the sensing space, but we need even less than that so this could be good simple technology.
"http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/393/part3/paradiso.html"
Sensor Systems for Interactive Surfaces (MIT Media Lab)
Provides much more high tech ideas about sensing than we need but also evaluated other more simple tracking. For example, pens (I think eBeams) that have acoustic time-of-flight to a fixed reciever from active sonar pingers. Also SoftBoard by Microfield Graphics that use "simple, passive reflecting targets on the drawing objects to be detected by a scanning fan-collimated light source, such as genterated by a scanned diode laser". (I don't understand that). And they get planar positon from triangulating two angular measurements.
"http://tangible.media.mit.edu/papers/SenseTable_CHI01/SenseTable_CHI01.pdf"
SenseTable (Tangible Media at MIT Media)
used two Wacom Intuos tablets to track objects on their table. The paper said it worked well because it sensed the position of objects with 1000 dpi resolution (I'm guessing this is pretty accurate then) and with a very low latency (i.e. delay between movement and the tablet sensing it) compared to computer vision.
Along those lines, because I know we were talking about using camera vision, the paper said that computer vision has problems because of occlusion, susceptibility to variation in lighting, and higher latency. For this reason, using existing technology might be better.
"http://www.touchscreens.com/intro-touchtypes-saw.html"
Surface Acoustic Wave technology
A type of touchscreen John mentioned.
OBJECT TRACKING TECHNOLOGY
"http://www.siibusinessproducts.com/index.html"
Seiko
Look at the InkLink and SmartPad products that transfer handwritten things to your computer/PDA. At least the InkLink is like the eBeam in that is based on sound. I'm not sure about the SmartPad.
"http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&CRID=1541&CONTENTID=6150&countryid=19&languageid=1"
Logitech io Personal Digital Pen
Using digital paper with a tiny dot pattern, you can write with the pen normally and an optical sensor (meaning camera?) reads the patters you write, an on board processor digitizes it, and this is stored on a memory chip until you transfer it to your computer.
"http://www.e-beam.com/"
E-Beam
We have them... so we could use them.
"http://www.e-beam.com/links/sdk.html"
eBeam SDK
(Software Develpment Kit) that I applied for. It has an API in it so hopefully we can figure out how to develop the object tracking/rollowver capabilities we need.
"http://www.wacom.com/index2.cfm"
Wacom
The "leading manufacturer of pen tablets and pens." It might be easier than the eBeam stuff.
"http://www.fingersystemusa.com/"
This company makes the iPen, which looks pretty cool. But they don't explain themselves too well, so I've written to them asking for more info. Still, the website is definitely worth checking out. These pens have rollover + click capacity.
When I wrote to them, I heard back from Max Song, max.song@fingersystemusa.com.
He said they use "the variable coordinates", which I assume means that they use relative positioning. They're optical mice. The pen is also pressure-sensitive.
He also said that the iPen can turn a normal laptop into writing instrument like a tablet PC. For example, they are being used in the medical field to fill out medical forms for the doctors who refuse to learn to type.
I'm really iffy on what the technology is, unfortunately he didn't get into details.
XY LOCATION
"http://wherehoo.media.mit.edu/about/"
Wherehoo (Jim Youll, MIT Media Lab)
An "interactive location service for software agents" which acts like a "search engine optimized for location-specefic searches." It is a reference source or catalog that binds a binary data block to precise coordinates of some locations on Earth. I think someone with more CS knowledge than I (meaning Lora I suppose) should look at this because the site has a lot of specific technical details that could help us.
DON'T GO ON UNLESS YOU'RE MOST DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR USER STUDY
If you want to particpate (and haven't peeked!!!) email me corina@stanford.edu
Check out the survey questions and comment please:
Click here to take survey
Parts of User Study
We are designing a user study to test out table out, which is pretty amazing since we haven't finsihed the table yet either but oh well. Some important points to consider after talking to Wendy about user studies
I'm still designing it but I think the study (tentatively) is going to consist of four parts:
Andy asked to know what I found out on the iPen, so:
When I wrote to them, I heard back from Max Song, (max.song@fingersystemusa).
He said they use "the variable coordinates", which I assume means that they use relative positioning. They're optical mice. The pen is also pressure-sensitive.
He also said that the iPen can turn a normal laptop into writing instrument like a tablet PC. For example, they are being used in the medical field to fill out medical forms for the doctors who refuse to learn to type.
I'm really iffy on what the technology is, unfortunately he didn't get into details. But, he did say it's available at radioshack.com, so I found it here. Click on the extended entry for more details from radioshack.
It costs $99.99. The description is as follows:
Now you can write or point & click with one tool—a pen-mouse called i-pen. It's a quicker way than a conventional mouse to translate your thoughts for computer record. Perfect for taking notes in school on your mobile notebook. Write reminders on your desktop.
PRODUCT FEATURES
• Puts computer input control into your hand
• Senses surface pressure with optical technology and translates your handwriting into text on the screen
• Writes or draws on e-mails, desktop, documents, presentations and more
• Perfect for writing in small spaces on almost any surface
• Two modes at the touch of a button—mouse mode for pointing/clicking, pen mode for writing/drawing
• Plugs into a USB port so it works with PC or Mac®
• Powered through USB connection, no batteries required
• Adapter optional for PS/2 port
Nifty, huh?
function rollover(CountryName){
//displays country name in bottom frame upon rollover
frames_page[1].document.write('
so you call this function like this:
onMouseover="rollover('United States'); return true"