Phrasing Bimanual Interaction for Visual Design

Architects and other visual thinkers create external representations of their ideas to support early-stage design. They compose visual imagery with sketching to form abstract diagrams as representations. When working with digital media, they apply various visual operations to transform representations, often engaging in complex sequences. This research investigates how to build interactive capabilities to support designers in putting together, that is phrasing, sequences of operations using both hands. In particular, we examine how phrasing interactions with pen and multi-touch input can support modal switching among different visual operations that in many commercial design tools require using menus and tool palettes—techniques originally designed for the mouse, not pen and touch. We develop an interactive bimanual pen+touch diagramming environment and study its use in landscape architecture design studio education. We observe interesting forms of interaction that emerge, and how our bimanual interaction techniques support visual design processes. Based on the needs of architects, we develop LayerFish, a new bimanual technique for layering overlapping content. We conduct a controlled experiment to evaluate its efficacy. We explore the use of wearables to identify which user, and distinguish what hand, is touching to support phrasing together direct-touch interactions on large displays. From design and development of the environment and both field and controlled studies, we derive a set methods, based upon human bimanual specialization theory, for phrasing modal operations through bimanual interactions without menus or tool palettes

Practical, appropriate, empirically-validated guidelines for designing educational games

There has recently been a great deal of interest in the potential of computer games to function as innovative educational tools. However, there is very little evidence of games fulfilling that potential. Indeed, the process of merging the disparate goals of education and games design appears problematic, and there are currently no practical guidelines for how to do so in a coherent manner. In this paper, we describe the successful, empirically validated teaching methods developed by behavioural psychologists and point out how they are uniquely suited to take advantage of the benefits that games offer to education. We conclude by proposing some practical steps for designing educational games, based on the techniques of Applied Behaviour Analysis. It is intended that this paper can both focus educational games designers on the features of games that are genuinely useful for education, and also introduce a successful form of teaching that this audience may not yet be familiar with

Kehollistuneet vuorovaikutuskoreografiat. Kinesteettinen lähestymistapa älykkäiden ympäristöjen suunnitteluun

Research investigates interaction design through application of the concept of choreography. Special attention is paid to assess what kind of influences technological designs have on the user’s body and movements. Choreographic approach to interaction design emphasizes the felt experience of movement as content to interaction design and offers methods for conducting multi-level choreographic analysis. The concept of kinesthesia, which refers to the felt sensation of movement, is regarded as the foundational concept for both understanding and realizing the choreographic analysis. Choreographic method is applied in studying a future vision of intelligent information and communication environments. Intelligent environment refers to development where objects in everyday environments become connected and form a communicating-actuating network that possess abilities to collect information on the environment and of its users, and enables processing of this information for serving the user’s needs. The research data consists of two visions on intelligent environments in video format, introduced by Microsoft. Visions are analyzed through choreographic analysis with intention to investigate interactions between the user, the intelligent environment and the computer system. Micro level choreography analysis focuses on how the user experiences choreographies as movement continuums. Also local level choreographies that address the broader interaction context will be analyzed. Task based analysis focuses on two functions, first, sending and fetching digital information and, second, real time re-modelling of data and visualizations. Phenomenological methodology that enabled embodiment of the choreographies through dancing was applied in the analysis. Dancing aimed at internalizing the choreographies and enabled the analysis of felt sensation of movement. Key finding of the study is that choreographic analysis and hermeneutics of the body work well to be utilized in tandem in conducting a case study research on intelligent ICT environments. Dancing is considered as choreographic practice that provides understanding on the unfolding of interactions in space, time and movement. Furthermore, dancing integrates the designer’s explicit technological information to the design context and highlights the kinesthetic dimension of interaction. Presented methods provide relevant support for defining technological systems in intelligent ICT environments that are grounded in the embodied experience of interaction. I suggest that ‘dancing as choreographic practice’ is to be applied in user-centered design of intelligent information and communication environments.Tutkimus tarkastelee vuorovaikutussuunnittelua koreografian käsitteen kautta. Koreografinen lähestymistapa tarkastelee teknologian kokonaisvaltaista ohjausvaikutusta käyttäjän liikkeeseen teknologian käyttötilanteessa. Koreografinen suunnitteluote korostaa liikkeen kokemuksen huomioimisen tärkeyttä vuorovaikutussuunnittelussa ja tarjoaa menetelmiä monitasoisen vuorovaikutusanalyysin toteuttamiseen. Kinestesian käsite, jolla tarkoitetaan liikkeen kokemista kehossa, nousee yhdeksi koreografisen lähestymistavan keskeisistä käsitteistä. Sovellan koreografista menetelmää tulevaisuuden älykästä informaatio- ja kommunikaatioympäristöä kuvaavan vision tutkimiseen. Älykkäällä ympäristöllä viittaan kehityskulkuun, jossa jokapäiväisissä ympäristöissämme läsnä oleva teknologia verkottuu, kykenee keräämään ja jakamaan tietoa ympäristöstä ja käyttäjistä sekä mahdollistaa tiedon jalostuksen käyttäjän tarpeita palvelevalla tavalla. Aineistona on käytetty Microsoftin teknologiavisioita, joissa esitetyt kuvaukset älykkäistä ympäristöistä sekä esimerkit käyttäjän ja teknologian välisistä liikkeellisistä vuorovaikutuksista nousevat analyysin kohteeksi. Analyysissa keskitytään ensinnäkin käyttäjän toteuttamien mikroliikkeiden jatkumon kokemuksen analyysiin. Toiseksi analysoidaan yksilön kokemusta paikallisen tason koreografioissa. Tällä analyysitasolla huomiota kiinnitetään teknologista vuorovaikutusta laajemman vuorovaikutustapahtuman kontekstiin jolloin mm. sosiaaliset tapahtumat ja tilan vaikutus vuorovaikutukseen tulevat huomioiduksi. Analyysi toteutetaan tehtäväperusteisena ja analyysi käsittää kaksi toimintoa: tiedostojen jakaminen ja vastaanottaminen sekä datan ja visualisointien muokkaus. Toteutin tutkimuksen nojaten fenomenologiseen metodologiaan, joka mahdollisti koreografioiden henkilökohtaisen omaksumisen tanssin eli tutkimuksen kohteena olevien vuorovaikutustapojen kehollisen harjoittamisen kautta. Teknologiavisioissa esitetyn liikemateriaalin perusteella jäsentyi koreografia, jonka tanssiminen mahdollisti liiketiedon sisäistämisen ja vuorovaikutusten kehollisesti koettujen ulottuvuuksien arvioinnin. Tutkimus osoitti koreografisen analyysin ja osittain tanssimalla toteutetun ruumiin hermeneuttisen lähestymistavan soveltuvan hyvin sovellettavaksi yhdessä älykästä ympäristöä käsittelevässä tapaustutkimuksessa. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä koreografisen menetelmän ja vuorovaikutusten kehollisen harjoittamisen todetaan auttavan suunnittelijaa tilassa, ajassa ja liikkeessä tapahtuvien vuorovaikutusten jäsentämisessä, ja arvioimaan miten teknologisen järjestelmän suunnitteluratkaisut vaikuttavat käyttäjän kehoon ja liikkeeseen vuorovaikutustapahtumassa. Esitän ’tanssimista koreografisena käytäntönä’ sovellettavaksi älykkäiden ympäristöjen käyttäjäkeskeisen suunnittelun menetelmänä

Physical Interaction Concepts for Knowledge Work Practices

The majority of workplaces in developed countries concern knowledge work. Accordingly, the IT industry and research made great efforts for many years to support knowledge workers -- and indeed, computer-based information workplaces have come of age. Nevertheless, knowledge work in the physical world has still quite a number of unique advantages, and the integration of physical and digital knowledge work leaves a lot to be desired. The present thesis aims at reducing these deficiencies; thereby, it leverages late technology trends, in particular interactive tabletops and resizable hand-held displays. We start from the observation that knowledge workers develop highly efficient practices, skills, and dexterity of working with physical objects in the real world, whether content-unrelated (coffee mugs, stationery etc.) or content-related (books, notepads etc.). Among the latter, paper-based objects -- the notorious analog information bearers -- represent by far the most relevant (super-) category. We discern two kinds of practices: collective practices concern the arrangement of objects with respect to other objects and the desk, while specific practices operate on individual objects and usually alter them. The former are mainly employed for an effective management of the physical desktop workspace -- e.g., everyday objects are frequently moved on tables to optimize the desk as a workplace -- or an effective organization of paper-based documents on the desktop -- e.g., stacking, fanning out, sorting etc. The latter concern the specific manipulation of physical objects related to the task at hand, i.e. knowledge work. Widespread assimilated practices concern not only writing on, annotating, or spatially arranging paper documents but also sophisticated manipulations -- such as flipping, folding, bending, etc. Compared to the wealth of such well-established practices in the real world, those for digital knowledge work are bound by the indirection imposed by mouse and keyboard input, where the mouse provided such a great advancement that researchers were seduced to calling its use "direct manipulation". In this light, the goal of this thesis can be rephrased as exploring novel interaction concepts for knowledge workers that i) exploit the flexible and direct manipulation potential of physical objects (as present in the real world) for more intuitive and expressive interaction with digital content, and ii) improve the integration of the physical and digital knowledge workplace. Thereby, two directions of research are pursued. Firstly, the thesis investigates the collective practices executed on the desks of knowledge workers, thereby discerning content-related (more precisely, paper-based documents) and content-unrelated object -- this part is coined as table-centric approaches and leverages the technology of interactive tabletops. Secondly, the thesis looks at specific practices executed on paper, obviously concentrating on knowledge related tasks due to the specific role of paper -- this part is coined as paper-centric approaches and leverages the affordances of paper-like displays, more precisely of resizable i.e. rollable and foldable displays. The table-centric approach leads to the challenge of blending interactive tabletop technology with the established use of physical desktop workspaces. We first conduct an exploratory user study to investigate behavioral and usage patterns of interaction with both physical and digital documents on tabletop surfaces while performing tasks such as grouping and browsing. Based on results of the study, we contribute two sets of interaction and visualization concepts -- coined as PaperTop and ObjecTop -- that concern specific paper based practices and collective practices, respectively. Their efficiency and effectiveness are evaluated in a series of user studies. As mentioned, the paper-centric perspective leverages late ultra-thin resizable display technology. We contribute two sets of novel interaction concepts again -- coined as FoldMe and Xpaaand -- that respond to the design space of dual-sided foldable and of rollout displays, respectively. In their design, we leverage the physical act of resizing not "just" for adjusting the screen real estate but also for interactively performing operations. Initial user studies show a great potential for interaction with digital contents, i.e. for knowledge work

Extracting proofs from documents

Often, theorem checkers like PVS are used to check an existing proof, which is part of some document. Since there is a large difference between the notations used in the documents and the notations used in the theorem checkers, it is usually a laborious task to convert an existing proof into a format which can be checked by a machine. In the system that we propose, the author is assisted in the process of converting an existing proof into the PVS language and having it checked by PVS. 1 Introduction The now-classic ALGOL 60 report [5] recognized three different levels of language: a reference language, a publication language and several hardware representations, whereby the publication language was intended to admit variations on the reference language and was to be used for stating and communicating processes. The importance of publication language ---often referred to nowadays as "pseudo-code"--- is difficult to exaggerate since a publication language is the most effective way..

Physical Diagnosis and Rehabilitation Technologies

The book focuses on the diagnosis, evaluation, and assistance of gait disorders; all the papers have been contributed by research groups related to assistive robotics, instrumentations, and augmentative devices

The tool space

Visions of futuristic desktop computer work spaces have often incorporated large interactive surfaces that either integrate into or replace the prevailing desk setup with displays, keyboard and mouse. Such visions often connote the distinct characteristics of direct touch interaction, e.g. by transforming the desktop into a large touch screen that allows interacting with content using one’s bare hands. However, the role of interactive surfaces for desktop computing may not be restricted to enabling direct interaction. Especially for prolonged interaction times, the separation of visual focus and manual input has proven to be ergonomic and is usually supported by vertical monitors and separate – hence indirect – input devices placed on the horizontal desktop. If we want to maintain this ergonomically matured style of computing with the introduction of interactive desktop displays, the following question arises: How can and should this novel input and output modality affect prevailing interaction techniques. While touch input devices have been used for decades in desktop computing as track pads or graphic tablets, the dynamic rendering of content and increasing physical dimensions of novel interactive surfaces open up new design opportunities for direct, indirect and hybrid touch input techniques. Informed design decisions require a careful consideration of the relationship between input sensing, visual display and applied interaction styles. Previous work in the context of desktop computing has focused on understanding the dual-surface setup as a holistic unit that supports direct touch input and allows the seamless transfer of objects across horizontal and vertical surfaces. In contrast, this thesis assumes separate spaces for input (horizontal input space) and output (vertical display space) and contributes to the understanding of how interactive surfaces can enrich indirect input for complex tasks, such as 3D modeling or audio editing. The contribution of this thesis is threefold: First, we present a set of case studies on user interface design for dual-surface computer workspaces. These case studies cover several application areas such as gaming, music production and analysis or collaborative visual layout and comprise formative evaluations. On the one hand, these case studies highlight the conflict that arises when the direct touch interaction paradigm is applied to dual-surface workspaces. On the other hand, they indicate how the deliberate avoidance of established input devices (i.e. mouse and keyboard) leads to novel design ideas for indirect touch-based input. Second, we introduce our concept of the tool space as an interaction model for dual-surface workspaces, which is derived from a theoretical argument and the previous case studies. The tool space dynamically renders task-specific input areas that enable spatial command activation and increase input bandwidth through leveraging multi-touch and two-handed input. We further present evaluations of two concept implementations in the domains 3D modeling and audio editing which demonstrate the high degrees of control, precision and sense of directness that can be achieved with our tools. Third, we present experimental results that inform the design of the tool space input areas. In particular, we contribute a set of design recommendations regarding the understanding of two-handed indirect multi-touch input and the impact of input area form factors on spatial cognition and navigation performance.Zukunftsvisionen thematisieren zuweilen neuartige, auf großen interaktiven Oberflächen basierende Computerarbeitsplätze, wobei etablierte PC-Komponenten entweder ersetzt oder erweitert werden. Oft schwingt bei derartigen Konzepten die Idee von natürlicher oder direkter Toucheingabe mit, die es beispielsweise erlaubt mit den Fingern direkt auf virtuelle Objekte auf einem großen Touchscreen zuzugreifen. Die Eingabe auf interaktiven Oberflächen muss aber nicht auf direkte Interaktionstechniken beschränkt sein. Gerade bei längerer Benutzung ist aus ergonomischer Sicht eine Trennung von visuellem Fokus und manueller Eingabe von Vorteil, wie es zum Beispiel bei der Verwendung von Monitoren und den gängigen Eingabegeräten der Fall ist. Soll diese Art der Eingabe auch bei Computerarbeitsplätzen unterstützt werden, die auf interaktiven Oberflächen basieren, dann stellt sich folgende Frage: Wie wirken sich die neuen Ein- und Ausgabemodalitäten auf vorherrschende Interaktionstechniken aus? Toucheingabe kommt beim klassischen Desktop-Computing schon lange zur Anwendung: Im Gegensatz zu sogenannten Trackpads oder Grafiktabletts eröffnen neue interaktive Oberflächen durch ihre visuellen Darstellungsmöglichkeiten und ihre Größe neue Möglichkeiten für das Design von direkten, indirekten oder hybriden Eingabetechniken. Fundierte Designentscheidungen erfordern jedoch eine sorgfältige Auseinandersetzung mit Ein- und Ausgabetechnologien sowie adequaten Interaktionsstilen. Verwandte Forschungsarbeiten haben sich auf eine konzeptuelle Vereinheitlichung von Arbeitsbereichen konzentriert, die es beispielsweise erlaubt, digitale Objekte mit dem Finger zwischen horizontalen und vertikalen Arbeitsbereichen zu verschieben. Im Gegensatz dazu geht die vorliegende Arbeit von logisch und räumlich getrennten Bereichen aus: Die horizontale interaktive Oberfläche dient primär zur Eingabe, während die vertikale als Display fungiert. Insbesondere trägt diese Arbeit zu einem Verständnis bei, wie durch eine derartige Auffassung interaktiver Oberflächen komplexe Aufgaben, wie zum Beispiel 3D-Modellierung oder Audiobearbeitung auf neue und gewinnbringende Art und Weise unterstützt werden können. Der wissenschaftliche Beitrag der vorliegenden Arbeit lässt sich in drei Bereiche gliedern: Zunächst werden Fallstudien präsentiert, die anhand konkreter Anwendungen (z.B. Spiele, Musikproduktion, kollaboratives Layout) neuartige Nutzerschnittstellen für Computerarbeitsplätze explorieren und evaluieren, die horizontale und vertikale interaktive Oberflächen miteinander verbinden. Einerseits verdeutlichen diese Fallstudien verschiedene Konflikte, die bei der Anwendung von direkter Toucheingabe an solchen Computerarbeitsplätzen hervorgerufen werden. Andererseits zeigen sie auf, wie der bewusste Verzicht auf etablierte Eingabegeräte zu neuen Toucheingabe-Konzepten führen kann. In einem zweiten Schritt wird das Toolspace-Konzept als Interaktionsmodell für Computerarbeitsplätze vorgestellt, die auf einem Verbund aus horizontaler und vertikaler interaktiver Oberfläche bestehen. Dieses Modell ergibt sich aus den vorangegangenen Fallstudien und wird zusätzlich theoretisch motiviert. Der Toolspace stellt anwendungsspezifische und dynamische Eingabeflächen dar, die durch räumliche Aktivierung und die Unterstützung beidhändiger Multitouch-Eingabe die Eingabebandbreite erhöhen. Diese Idee wird anhand zweier Fallstudien illustriert und evaluiert, die zeigen, dass dadurch ein hohes Maß an Kontrolle und Genauigkeit erreicht sowie ein Gefühl von Direktheit vermittelt wird. Zuletzt werden Studienergebnisse vorgestellt, die Erkenntnisse zum Entwurf von Eingabeflächen im Tool Space liefern, insbesondere zu den Themen beidhändige indirekte Multitouch-Eingabe sowie zum Einfluss von Formfaktoren auf räumliche Kognition und Navigation

"Knowing is Seeing:" The Digital Audio Workstation and the Visualization of Sound

The computers visual representation of sound has revolutionized the creation of music through the interface of the Digital Audio Workstation software (DAW). With the rise of DAW-based composition in popular music styles, many artists sole experience of musical creation is through the computer screen. I assert that the particular sonic visualizations of the DAW propagate certain assumptions about music, influencing aesthetics and adding new visually-based parameters to the creative process. I believe many of these new parameters are greatly indebted to the visual structures, interactional dictates and standardizations (such as the office metaphor depicted by operating systems such as Apples OS and Microsofts Windows) of the Graphical User Interface (GUI). Whether manipulating text, video or audio, a users interaction with the GUI is usually structured in the same mannerclicking on windows, icons and menus with a mouse-driven cursor. Focussing on the dialogs from the Reddit communities of Making hip-hop and EDM production, DAW user manuals, as well as interface design guidebooks, this dissertation will address the ways these visualizations and methods of working affect the workflow, composition style and musical conceptions of DAW-based producers