Summary of the diary study: “Please feed the digital parrot”

This document summarises the findings of the diary study “Please feed the Digital Parrot” conducted in May 2007. The aim of this study was to collect real-world examples of remembering behaviour. We show the most interesting entries we collected, highlighting the kinds of information people wish to remember, the situations in which they wish to remember this information and how they go about remembering information. We discuss in which ways the findings deviate from our expectations and the implications of our observations for context-aware systems research and for future diary studies

Women\u27s Programs Fall 1988

Fall 1988 calendar of Women\u27s programs, includes cover letter from Lisa Ransdell to faculty, photos and event descriptions. Events: Women\u27s Music Then and Now, Women in the Office (library display), common hours, all-college convocation, Women\u27s Film Festival, bell hooks: Ending Domination: Healing Our Wounds , Women\u27s Voices, Barbara Furin Sloat (Grace Lyons Alumnae Award), Andrea Parrot Does \u27No\u27 Ever Mean \u27Yes\u27?

A tale of two studies

Running user evaluation studies is a useful way of getting feedback on partially or fully implemented software systems. Unlike hypothesis-based testing (where specific design decisions can be tested or comparisons made between design choices) the aim is to find as many problems (both usability and functional) as possible prior to implementation or release. It is particularly useful in small-scale development projects that may lack the resources and expertise for other types of usability testing. Developing a user-study that successfully and efficiently performs this task is not always straightforward however. It may not be obvious how to decide what the participants should be asked to do in order to explore as many parts of the system’s interface as possible. In addition, ad hoc approaches to such study development may mean the testing is not easily repeatable on subsequent implementations or updates, and also that particular areas of the software may not be evaluated at all. In this paper we describe two (very different) approaches to designing an evaluation study for the same piece of software and discuss both the approaches taken, the differing results found and our comments on both of these

Catching and displaying memory cues for a mobile augmented memory system

This report goes over and details the progress of the 2013 COMP477 project “Augmenting Memory: The Digital Parrot on Mobile Devices” undertaken by Jake Bellamy and supervised by Annika Hinze at the University of Waikato. The report begins with an overview on the problem with remembering events in people’s lives and details the background information on the Digital Parrot system. It also describes the previous project that preceded this one, which began to conceptualize the Digital Parrot on mobile devices. It analyses problems with the current design of the system and addresses them. The report then goes on to conduct an in depth user study with the functioning version of the software. The user study finds design flaws and incorrect functionality in the application that would not have otherwise been apparent. Finally, the report concludes with a proposed user interface concept that addresses all of the issues found in the user study and describes how the system would work. It describes the initial implementation that has begun in building this system

Mixed marker-based/marker-less visual odometry system for mobile robots

When moving in generic indoor environments, robotic platforms generally rely solely on information provided by onboard sensors to determine their position and orientation. However, the lack of absolute references often leads to the introduction of severe drifts in estimates computed, making autonomous operations really hard to accomplish. This paper proposes a solution to alleviate the impact of the above issues by combining two vision‐based pose estimation techniques working on relative and absolute coordinate systems, respectively. In particular, the unknown ground features in the images that are captured by the vertical camera of a mobile platform are processed by a vision‐based odometry algorithm, which is capable of estimating the relative frame‐to‐frame movements. Then, errors accumulated in the above step are corrected using artificial markers displaced at known positions in the environment. The markers are framed from time to time, which allows the robot to maintain the drifts bounded by additionally providing it with the navigation commands needed for autonomous flight. Accuracy and robustness of the designed technique are demonstrated using an off‐the‐shelf quadrotor via extensive experimental test

Daniel DeNicola, Professor of Philosophy

In this issue of Next Page, Professor of Philosophy Daniel DeNicola reveals his appreciation for mysteries, especially those focused on manuscripts or works of art, and how his incessant childhood habit of reading the backs of cereal boxes at breakfast led his parents to buy him a set of Children\u27s Classics and his very own encyclopedia-sold in installments at the supermarket

Personal Semantic Timeframe

Human memories are often not grouped around objective times and places but rather guided by subjective perception of these dimensions. Various techniques are used to recall personal information such as remembering names, conferences and numbers, but how different experiences or events or the event that has taken place two years earlier raises a question. Occasionally, having experienced an event, one may be asked about its absolute time in autobiographical memory. It is surprisingly difficult to predict the time when this date needs to be remembered. There is a tendency to use partial temporal information such as birthdays, parties or seasons to remember, rather than a specific date e.g. 21 September 1996. People need appropriate facts or personal semantics of their time to access to their past experiences while remembering. A user study was conducted to explore the use of past personal temporal information and capture this information to be used as personal time search features in an augmented memory system called Digital Parrot. These features aim to make temporal dates more easily accessible while remembering. A proposed design was made according to requirements that are derived from findings of psychology perspective, an exploration of the use of time study, and the visualizing time study. To evaluate how effective these features in locating and recalling past experiences, a user study was conducted with post questionnaires. The result of this study indicated that the most beneficial personal time search features are personal timespans, personal and public landmarks, and personal images. The findings from all studies of the thesis were used to provide recommendations for future work to develop and implement personal time search in Digital Parrot system