The Mole: a pressure-sensitive mouse

The traditional mouse enables the positioning of a cursor in a 2D plane, as well as the interaction of binary elements within that plane (e.g., buttons, links, icons). While this basic functionality is sufficient for interacting with every modern computing environment, it makes little use of the human hand\u27s ability to perform complex multi-directional movements. Devices developed to capture these multi-directional capabilities typically lack the familiar form and function of the mouse. This thesis details the design and development of a pressure-sensitive device called The Mole. The Mole retains the familiar form and function of the mouse while passively measuring the magnitude of normal hand force (i.e., downward force normal to the 2D operating surface). The measurement of this force lends itself to the development of novel interactions, far beyond what is possible with a typical mouse. This thesis demonstrates two such interactions: the positioning of a cursor in 3D space, and the simultaneous manipulation of cursor position and graphic tool parameters

Musical Gesture through the Human Computer Interface: An Investigation using Information Theory

This study applies information theory to investigate human ability to communicate using continuous control sensors with a particular focus on informing the design of digital musical instruments. There is an active practice of building and evaluating such instruments, for instance, in the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conference community. The fidelity of the instruments can depend on the included sensors, and although much anecdotal evidence and craft experience informs the use of these sensors, relatively little is known about the ability of humans to control them accurately. This dissertation addresses this issue and related concerns, including continuous control performance in increasing degrees-of-freedom, pursuit tracking in comparison with pointing, and the estimations of musical interface designers and researchers of human performance with continuous control sensors. The methodology used models the human-computer system as an information channel while applying concepts from information theory to performance data collected in studies of human subjects using sensing devices. These studies not only add to knowledge about human abilities, but they also inform on issues in musical mappings, ergonomics, and usability

Reverseorc:Reverse engineering of resizable user interface layouts with or-constraints

Reverse engineering (RE) of user interfaces (UIs) plays an important role in software evolution. However, the large diversity of UI technologies and the need for UIs to be resizable make this challenging. We propose ReverseORC, a novel RE approach able to discover diverse layout types and their dynamic resizing behaviours independently of their implementation, and to specify them by using OR constraints. Unlike previous RE approaches, ReverseORC infers flexible layout constraint specifications by sampling UIs at different sizes and analyzing the differences between them. It can create specifications that replicate even some non-standard layout managers with complex dynamic layout behaviours. We demonstrate that ReverseORC works across different platforms with very different layout approaches, e.g., for GUIs as well as for the Web. Furthermore, it can be used to detect and fix problems in legacy UIs, extend UIs with enhanced layout behaviours, and support the creation of flexible UI layouts.Comment: CHI2021 Full Pape

THE SUSTAINABILITY OF CLOUD STORAGE

This paper will attempt to determine the sustainability of cloud storage; that is, systems where the database lies in a separate vendor network other than the application itself. In this paper, we will discuss the reliability, usability, cost and overall ease of use of current vendor solutions while also describing the typical setup of cloud storage. We will also look at the evolution of cloud storage moving into the future, and attempt to determine whether integrations into cloud storage can be relied upon to transport vital information

The Last Decade of HCI Research on Children and Voice-based Conversational Agents

Voice-based Conversational Agents (CAs) are increasingly being used by children. Through a review of 38 research papers, this work maps trends, themes, and methods of empirical research on children and CAs in HCI research over the last decade. A thematic analysis of the research found that work in this domain focuses on seven key topics: ascribing human-like qualities to CAs, CAs’ support of children’s learning, the use and role of CAs in the home and family context, CAs’ support of children’s play, children’s storytelling with CA, issues concerning the collection of information revealed by CAs, and CAs designed for children with differing abilities. Based on our findings, we identify the needs to account for children's intersectional identities and linguistic and cultural diversity and theories from multiple disciples in the design of CAs, develop heuristics for child-centric interaction with CAs, to investigate implications of CAs on social cognition and interpersonal relationships, and to examine and design for multi-party interactions with CAs for different domains and contexts

A Survey of Requirements Engineering Methods for Pervasive Services

Designing and deploying ubiquitous computing systems, such as those delivering large-scale mobile services, still requires large-scale investments in both development effort as well as infrastructure costs. Therefore, in order to develop the right system, the design process merits a thorough investigation of the wishes of the foreseen user base. Such investigations are studied in the area of requirements engineering (RE). In this report, we describe and compare three requirements engineering methods that belong to one specific form of RE, namely Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering. By mapping these methods to a common framework, we assess their applicability in the field of ubiquitous computing systems

Choosing a Questionnaire Measuring Connectedness to Nature for Human-Computer Interaction User Studies

L’évaluation d’interfaces humain-machine visant à agir sur les attitudes et les comportements pro-environnementaux de leurs utilisateurs devrait tenir compte du rapport à la nature des participants : l’analyse d’études utilisateur dans ce contexte doit en effet pouvoir discriminer un possible effet sur les résultats obtenus. Cet article propose de guider le choix parmi 21 questionnaires issus de la littérature mesurant le rapport à la nature (via des échelles du construit Connectedness to Nature, CtN). Nous reprenons une revue et une analyse que nous avons conduites pour en choisir un répondant à nos besoins pour une étude recrutant sur l’espace public et pour étude utilisateur longitudinale visant à évaluer l’utilisation et l’impact d’interfaces à changement de forme sur des lieux de travail afin d’accompagner un comportement environnemental. Cet article analyse les questionnaires selon huit critères relatifs aux études utilisateurs en IHM pour la soutenabilité, reprend les résultats de méta-analyses et illustre deux choix de questionnaire, puis revient sur les limitations de l’offre de questionnaires pour des études utilisateur en IHM.Evaluation of human–computer interfaces that aim at shaping users’ pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors should consider measuring participants’ affinity with nature: analyses of user studies in this context have to discriminate a possible effect on the results. This paper proposes to guide the choice between 21 questionnaires available in the literature measuring the Connectedness to Nature (CtN) construct. We thus share a review and an analysis that we made to choose one scale questionnaire for our needs of a user study recruiting in public places and a longitudinal user study aiming to evaluate the use and impact of shape-changing interfaces at workplaces to assist pro-environmental behavior. This paper analyzes questionnaires through eight criteria for Sustainable HCI user studies, reports some meta-analyses’ results, illustrates two questionnaire choices, then overviews the limitations of available questionnaires for user studies in HCI