Quantifying the Artistic Experience with Perceptive Sketching Tools: Cognitive Technologies to Support Creativity Researchers

Creativity research has gradually moved away from controlled laboratory settings to more naturalistic and real world domains. As a result, new research methods are required to systematically analyze the artistic experience that includes the artist’s perception, behavior, and conception throughout the creative process. We use research findings from the Cognitive Science literature to create a framework called Perceptual Logic to categorize different types of artistic experience. This framework is applicable to open-ended artistic creativity. Empiri- cally validating such a framework requires new tools that provide insight into the naturalistic creative process. We describe the initial design of a set of digital sketching tools that enables creativity researchers to quantitatively analyze the artistic experience. These tools focus spe- cifically on understanding how visual digital artists perceive and interact with their drawings and paintings throughout their creative process

The Designosaur and the Furniture Factory: simple software for fast fabrication.

Abstract. We describe two domain oriented design tools that help novice designers design three-dimensional models that they can build using rapid manufacturing equipment. By embedding domain and manufacturing knowledge in the software and providing a sketching interface, novice designers can acquire and practice skills in modeling and manufacturing, without first having to master complicated CAD tools. From sketching to fabrication: simple design tools for making things INTRODUCTION We want to make it easy for ordinary people, especially children, to design and manufacture three-dimensional models using planar components as an entrée to learning to design. We believe that the experience of designing and making things is a powerful vehicle for learning. For many people, designing and making something can be rewarding and engaging, and, we think, can motivate more general learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Further, we think that in its own right, designing is an intellectual capacity that, once acquired in one domain, can be widely applied. Sadly, many people view design as an innate talent for creativity that they lack. Our project to build lightweight software to engage young people and naïve users in designing and manufacturing simple 3-D models aims to open the door to design and the rich universe of learning that design affords. Three-dimensional physical models are powerful devices that help people see and understand designs. One can hold a physical model in the hand, take it apart, and reassemble it, perhaps in different ways. This ability to interact physically with a model and its parts is important, we think, for thinking about a design; and the experience of designing with 3-D models teaches spatial skills that designers cannot easily acquire through other means such as drawing or computer graphics modeling. Making models in the traditional way demands considerable manual skill and dexterity, for example cutting wood parts with a razor knife. The advent and adoption of rapid prototyping and manufacturing (RPM) machinery has made it possible for ordinary designers, students, and even children, to produce physical artifacts using computational means. Although most RPM hardware is as simple to use as a printer, the software tools that designers use to produce representations for output require a great deal of expertise. To produce a 3-D model designers must create a computer graphic representation. Typically designers do this using powerful general-purpose CAD modeling tools that impose a significant learning curve. Requiring of professional designers this degree of sophistication and expertise may be acceptable; however, the tools bar entry to casual and novice users

Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Semantic Ambient Media Experiences (SAME 2016): Smart Cities for Better Living with HCI and UX - SEACHI Extended Papers

Digital and interactive technologies are becoming increasingly embedded in everyday lives of people around the world. Application of technologies such as real-time, context-aware, and interactive technologies; augmented and immersive realities; social media; and location-based services has been particularly evident in urban environments where technological and sociocultural infrastructures enable easier deployment and adoption as compared to non-urban areas. There has been growing consumer demand for new forms of experiences and services enabled through these emerging technologies. We call this ambient media, as the media is embedded in the natural human living environment. The 8th Semantic Ambient Media Workshop Experience (SAME) Proceedings where based on a collaboration between the SEACHI Workshop Smart Cities for Better Living with HCI and UX, which has been organized by UX Indonesia and was held in conjunction with Computers and Human-Computer Interaction (CHI) 2016 in San Jose, CA USA. The extended versions of the workshop papers are freely available through http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org/Journal under open access by the International Ambient Media Association (iAMEA). iAMEA is hosting the international open access journal entitled “International Journal on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMediaâ€, and the international open access series “International Series on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMedia†(see http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org). The International Ambient Media Association (AMEA) organizes the Semantic Ambient Media (SAME) workshop series, which took place in 2008 in conjunction with ACM Multimedia 2008 in Vancouver, Canada; in 2009 in conjunction with AmI 2009 in Salzburg, Austria; in 2010 in conjunction with AmI 2010 in Malaga, Spain; in 2011 in conjunction with Communities and Technologies 2011 in Brisbane, Australia; in 2012 in conjunction with Pervasive 2012 in Newcastle, UK; and in 2013 in conjunction with C&T 2013 in Munich, Germany; and in 2014 in conjunction with NordCHI 2014 in Helsinki, Finland. The workshop organizers present you a fascinating crossover of latest cutting edge views on the topic of ambient media, and hope you will be enjoying the reading. We also would like to thank all the contributors, as only with their enthusiasm the workshop can become a success. At least we would like to thank the lovely organizing team of CHI 2016, the SEACHI 2016 organisers, and our programme committee members

A Computational Design Pipeline to Fabricate Sensing Network Physicalizations

Interaction is critical for data analysis and sensemaking. However, designing interactive physicalizations is challenging as it requires cross-disciplinary knowledge in visualization, fabrication, and electronics. Interactive physicalizations are typically produced in an unstructured manner, resulting in unique solutions for a specific dataset, problem, or interaction that cannot be easily extended or adapted to new scenarios or future physicalizations. To mitigate these challenges, we introduce a computational design pipeline to 3D print network physicalizations with integrated sensing capabilities. Networks are ubiquitous, yet their complex geometry also requires significant engineering considerations to provide intuitive, effective interactions for exploration. Using our pipeline, designers can readily produce network physicalizations supporting selection-the most critical atomic operation for interaction-by touch through capacitive sensing and computational inference. Our computational design pipeline introduces a new design paradigm by concurrently considering the form and interactivity of a physicalization into one cohesive fabrication workflow. We evaluate our approach using (i) computational evaluations, (ii) three usage scenarios focusing on general visualization tasks, and (iii) expert interviews. The design paradigm introduced by our pipeline can lower barriers to physicalization research, creation, and adoption.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures; to be published in Proceedings of IEEE VIS 202

ShapeBots: Shape-changing Swarm Robots

We introduce shape-changing swarm robots. A swarm of self-transformable robots can both individually and collectively change their configuration to display information, actuate objects, act as tangible controllers, visualize data, and provide physical affordances. ShapeBots is a concept prototype of shape-changing swarm robots. Each robot can change its shape by leveraging small linear actuators that are thin (2.5 cm) and highly extendable (up to 20cm) in both horizontal and vertical directions. The modular design of each actuator enables various shapes and geometries of self-transformation. We illustrate potential application scenarios and discuss how this type of interface opens up possibilities for the future of ubiquitous and distributed shape-changing interfaces.Comment: UIST 201

DualStream: Spatially Sharing Selves and Surroundings using Mobile Devices and Augmented Reality

In-person human interaction relies on our spatial perception of each other and our surroundings. Current remote communication tools partially address each of these aspects. Video calls convey real user representations but without spatial interactions. Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) experiences are immersive and spatial but often use virtual environments and characters instead of real-life representations. Bridging these gaps, we introduce DualStream, a system for synchronous mobile AR remote communication that captures, streams, and displays spatial representations of users and their surroundings. DualStream supports transitions between user and environment representations with different levels of visuospatial fidelity, as well as the creation of persistent shared spaces using environment snapshots. We demonstrate how DualStream can enable spatial communication in real-world contexts, and support the creation of blended spaces for collaboration. A formative evaluation of DualStream revealed that users valued the ability to interact spatially and move between representations, and could see DualStream fitting into their own remote communication practices in the near future. Drawing from these findings, we discuss new opportunities for designing more widely accessible spatial communication tools, centered around the mobile phone.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; To appear in the proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) 202

New interaction tools for preserving an old language

The Penan people of Malaysian Borneo were traditionally nomads of the rainforest. They would leave messages in the jungle for each other by shaping natural objects into language tokens and arranging these symbols in specific ways – much like words in a sentence. With settlement, the language is being lost as it is not being used by the younger generation. We report here, a tangible system designed to help the Penans preserve their unique object writing language. The key features of the system are that: the tangibles are made of real objects; it works in the wild; and new tangibles can be fabricated and added to the system by the users. Our evaluations show that the system is engaging and encourages intergenerational knowledge transfer, thus has the potential to help preserve this language

Asian CHI symposium: HCI research from Asia and on Asian contexts and cultures

This symposium showcases the latest HCI work from Asia and those focusing on incorporating Asian sociocultural factors in their design and implementation. In addition to circulating ideas and envisioning future research in human-computer interaction, this symposium aims to foster social networks among academics (researchers and students) and practitioners and grow a research community from Asia