DIS paper accepted!!!

We are happy to inform you that your paper

 207 - Kolab: appropriation & improvisation in mobile tangible collaborative interaction

has been accepted to DIS 2012 Long and Short Papers .

We received 449 papers which is about 150 more papers than DIS 2010, and many more than anticipated. We were able to accept only 89 papers due to the time and venue restrictions (so, the acceptance rate was just less than 20%).


This is a good day. 

typing recognition.

One of my research projects ( which is more web than ubicomp) is the development of an on-line compiler for students. One of the problems we have is 'knowing' the student is the one who did the work and the one who turns up for the exam.

For a while I've been wondering about something which looks at mouse and keyboard timing to 'recognise' you. The idea is if you look at the timing of key downs and the inter-key timing for typing on a keyboard it might tell you 2 things
    1. let you discriminate you from someone else and
    2. let you get some inkling about that persons emotional state  ( something for affective computing).

This work on passwords suggests someone has made a full time career out of that idea ( which is great). They want to build a password system without passwords - nice and very user friendly. Eventually they will realise you can have a system which identifies people by their clicking so giving an 'online' identity. This stops someone being kicked out of a forum for abusive behaviour then coming back as someone else ( or  logging on multiple times as different people).

Going back to students for a second - the ability to recognise a student typing code would be a boon. In an exam they have to prove who they are so if we can capture their ID for the exercises then we can check that on line students are who they say they are.

Some self aggrandisement for a change

UCL have put my Phd thesis on line and I thought I would post it here for future reference.

[ http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1334117/ ]

Smartphones, the internet and the smart energy revolution

Some HCI people worry about not having much to do on green issues. I'm believe the reverse - and this is a good example.  Nice to think that a reinvention of thermostat could save 20% of the energy a home uses.

I would like to learn more about how it works.

Talks | Learning Without Frontiers

Talks | Learning Without Frontiers

Recommended by one of my PHD students. Kind of interesting if your into education. Claims to be the Davos of education.

Neurodiversity for interactions

I just sent off the final draft to the editor of Interactions. I'm suddenly uncertain what he will make of it. Well let's see. I'm terrified by the lost list of people who looked at it. Still I'm got a good vibe from people about neurodiversity so I remain hopeful. 

Spatial Cognition 2012 paper in

http://sc2012.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/

Its been a busy weekend but I/we got the Spatial Cognition 2012 paper in. 20 pages pa!

Paper of the day

Comparing entropy measures of idea links in design protocols: Linkography entropy measurement and analysis of differently conditioned design sessions

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1339952

This paper explores using Shannon's entropy of information to measure linkographs of 12 design sessions that involved six architects in two different experimental conditions. The aim is to find a quantitative tool to interpret the linkographs. This study examines if the differences in the design processes and the design outcomes can be reflected in the entropic interpretations. The results show that the overall entropy of one design condition is slightly higher than the other. Further, there are indications that the change of entropy might reflect design outcomes.

Masters project of the day - collaborative tangible laptop

Given that most laptops now have cameras in the screens is it possible to invent uses for tangible user interfaces which would only use the hardware of a laptop or an iPad?


For a mac you would have to tilt the screen down to get the camera in the right position. This would leave sound as the the only out. With an iPad the screen would face away from the action ---. 

Masters project of the day

- Looking at skylands as an example of children's tangible interaction.

Good news of the day

From Iaps IAPS 2012 Glasgow Organising Committee 
(IAPS) International association of people environment studies 


We are pleased to say that your submission iPfad: an iPad App for the real-time recording and encoding of direct observations of wayfinding behaviour has been accepted for inclusion in the oral paper category.  We would be grateful if you could confirm that still intend to present the paper at the conference.

Hasso-Plattner-Institut: Multitoe

Hasso-Plattner-Institut: Multitoe

Basically this is multi-touch big enough to stand on - which is quite need.