Painting an apple with an apple : a tangible tabletop interface for painting with physical objects

We introduce UnicrePaint, a digital painting system that allows the user to paint with physical objects by acquiring three parameters from the interacting object: the form, the color pattern and the contact pressure. The design of the system is motivated by a hypothesis that integrating direct input from physical objects with digital painting offers unique creative experiences to the user. A major technical challenge in implementing UnicrePaint is to resolve the conflict between input and output, i.e., to be able to capture the form and color pattern of contacting objects from a camera, while at the same time be able to present the captured data using a projector. We present a solution for this problem. We implemented a prototype and carried out a user study with fifteen novice users. Additionally, five professional users with art-related backgrounds participated in a user study to obtain insights into how professionals might view our system. The results show that UnicrePaint offers unique experiences with painting in a creative manner. Also, its potentials beyond mere artwork are suggested

Figure 1. Aquamarine's History Panel showing operation #10 (brush stroke for the nose) selectively undone. Selective Undo Support for Painting Applications

ABSTRACT Today's widely deployed painting applications use a linear undo model that allows users to backtrack previous operations in reverse chronological order. This undo model is not useful if the user has performed desired operations after undesired ones. Selective undo, in contrast, allows users to select specific operations in the past and only undo those, while keeping the remaining operations intact. Although selective undo has been widely explored in the context of text editing and object-oriented drawing, we explore selective undo for painting (bitmap) editing, which has received less attention and introduces many interesting user interface design challenges. Our system, called Aquamarine, explores the script model for selective undo, where selectively undone operations are skipped in the history, rather than the more explored inverse model, which puts an inverse of the selected operations at the end of the history. We discuss the design implications and show through two informal user studies that selective undo is usable and desirable

Versioning in Interactive Systems

Dealing with past states of an interactive system is often difficult, and users often resort to unwieldy methods such as saving and naming multiple copies. Versioning tools can help users save and manipulate different versions of a document, but traditional tools designed for coding are often unsuitable for interactive systems. Supporting versioning in interactive systems requires investigation of how users think about versions and how they want to access and manipulate past states. We first surveyed users to understand what a ‘version’ means to them in the context of digital interactive work, and the circumstances under which they create new versions or go back to previous ones. We then built a versioning tool that can store versions using a variety of explicit and implicit mechanisms and shows a graphical representation of the version tree to allow easy inspection and manipulation. To observe how users used versions in different work contexts, we tested our versioning tool in two interactive systems – a game level editor and a web analysis tool. We report several new findings about how users of interactive systems create versions and use them as undo alternatives, exploring options, and planning future work. Our results show that versioning can be a valuable component that improves the power and usability of interactive systems. The new understanding that we gained about versioning in interactive environments by developing and evaluating our custom version tool can help us design more effective versioning tools for interactive systems

Improving Collaborative Drawing using HTML5

This research looks into improving online web-based collaborative drawing using HTML5. Although many systems have been developed over a number of years, none of the applications released have been satisfactory for many artists; the core drawing experience was too different from a stand-alone drawing applications. Stand-alone drawing applications have better freedom of control with functions like undo and allow artists to work efficiently with hotkeys. The advent of the HTML5 Canvas Element and Websockets in recent browsers has provided new opportunities for collaborative online interaction. This research used an incremental development approach to build a prototype HTML5 drawing application providing new functionality for online collaborative drawing. The project was supported by two experienced artists throughout investigation, design, implementation and testing. The project artists helped validate design decisions and evaluate the implementation. As a result, a robust HTML5 collaborative drawing application was built. The prototype contains core drawing functionality that existing applications did not. Features include: undo and redo, free canvas transformation, complex hotkey interaction, custom canvas size support, colour wheel, and layers. All these features work smoothly in a fully synchronized network environment under a client-server model. The collaboration system uses an authoritative server structure with local prediction and re-synchronization to hide latency. Although the result is only a prototype, the evaluations from the project artists were very positive. Once more functionality targeted towards social interaction is built, the prototype will be ready for mass public testing. Although there are some issues caused by the immaturity of HTML5 technology, this project affirms its capability for collaborative web applications

Integrating Computer Technology and Traditional Art Tools: A Visual Literacy Handbook

Throughout history technology has advanced because new tools have been invented. Within the past fifty years the computer grew to be a new tool for business and industry. In the last twenty years, computers have become a tool for helping with daily activities. Now computers are being recognized as a tool for creativity. Artists have incorporated digital tools in their traditional toolbox. A review of related literature shows that computer generated digital art has been integrated into many aspects of the fine arts, including galleries and museums. This technology is being incorporated into the curriculums of our schools as well. Students are developing visual literacy through activities and lessons that make use of current computer technology along with materials and tools in the traditional fine arts program. This handbook shows ways digital art can enhance the learning of visual literacy in a fine arts program

Image-Processing Techniques for the Creation of Presentation-Quality Astronomical Images

The quality of modern astronomical data, the power of modern computers and the agility of current image-processing software enable the creation of high-quality images in a purely digital form. The combination of these technological advancements has created a new ability to make color astronomical images. And in many ways it has led to a new philosophy towards how to create them. A practical guide is presented on how to generate astronomical images from research data with powerful image-processing programs. These programs use a layering metaphor that allows for an unlimited number of astronomical datasets to be combined in any desired color scheme, creating an immense parameter space to be explored using an iterative approach. Several examples of image creation are presented. A philosophy is also presented on how to use color and composition to create images that simultaneously highlight scientific detail and are aesthetically appealing. This philosophy is necessary because most datasets do not correspond to the wavelength range of sensitivity of the human eye. The use of visual grammar, defined as the elements which affect the interpretation of an image, can maximize the richness and detail in an image while maintaining scientific accuracy. By properly using visual grammar, one can imply qualities that a two-dimensional image intrinsically cannot show, such as depth, motion and energy. In addition, composition can be used to engage viewers and keep them interested for a longer period of time. The use of these techniques can result in a striking image that will effectively convey the science within the image, to scientists and to the public.Comment: 104 pages, 38 figures, submitted to A

Spartan Daily, February 7, 1952

Volume 40, Issue 84https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/11676/thumbnail.jp

Recombinant design : leveraging process capture for collective creativity

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2006.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-126).Design is omnipresent and fundamental to the modern world, yet so little of the rich semantic information of the design evolution is preserved. If we are to gain the greatest knowledge and utility from a creative work, we must understand and preserve the process by which it was designed. To pursue this understanding, I have designed and implemented two electronic media-based process capture frameworks that automatically capture and share process as well as provide process reviewing tools. The first system, Chronicler, is a universal capture framework which captures fine-grained process information at an action resolution, demonstrated through the example of a painting program. The second system, Artwork Genealogy, a component of the OPENSTUDIO project, uses versions embedded with process metadata to document the evolution of artwork in an open collaborative community. This web-based system was launched to users in February 2006 and continues to collect art processes from an active and growing community. Through simple, friendly user interfaces, these two systems encourage designers to donate to a repository of shared, searchable design information from which design rationale, the explanations for design decisions, can be inferred.(cont.) The comparison of these two systems, through data mining and user analysis, shows the effectiveness of these methods for collaborative process capture and combinatorial process reuse. In particular, I demonstrate the ability of process capture systems to give rise to emergent behaviors, uncover process regularities, and to empower designers through five key areas: learning from past work, reusing ideas and work, expression, attribution, and evaluation.by Annie Ding.M.Eng