SAP and Wired on Neurodiversity

A number of news sources have reported
German software company SAP is looking to recruit people with autism as programmers and product testers, drawing on skills that can include a close attention to detail and an ability to solve complex problems.

I find it interesting that a big software company like SAP is looking to recruit people on the autistic spectrum. This has been done on a smaller scale by specialist companies like Aspertech. SAP has done this on a smaller scale before so hopefully they know what they are doing and know what they are going to get out of it. If done right a good example of neurodiversity in action. 

Meanwhile Wired also has done a bit  the 'pattern' brain for autisum spectrum programmers - So we have Visual thinkers, Verbal thinkers and Pattern thinkers   - an interesting new perspective. 

eTMA Monitor file handling how to.

OK This is really just a note to self that can't be lost.

To be a Monitor you must have a PC running Windows.

1. 1. From Tutor home go to etma 
2. Click on monitoring in top area. 
   
3. This takes you to monitoring area. 
4. Click on software down load 
   
5. click on" Monitor File Handler Application for handling monitoring file " to down load 
6. Run installed clicking ingore or continue. 
7. Go back to monitoring area. 
8. Click  download set extracting 
9. Phone technical support (54321)  to give you install admin rights on the machine your on ( will need Archie number for this ) will take 20mins to respond don't worry just leave like open and get on with another job.  don't bother doing this before you have downloaded apps and failed to get working as they will not understand you and will want to take over your machine remotely to help.
10. Run installers
11. put documents into monitoring space 
12. Open moniting app Software will only run on C drive. 

Geography of hate

This is a map of tweets which have been automatically collected by manually scanned for true abuse.  Wow I never new cripple was used in such a negative way. What is consistently weirds is that the west of the US comes out as so chilled out.  
Hate Map

ibm 305 ramac - YouTube

ibm 305 ramac - YouTube:
So in what sense isn't this a tangible user interface for accounting ?  Still it's one of the most professional Kickstarter pitches I've seen so far :-)

Arduino and Virtual Reality

I'm blogging this as a very cool and powerful way to use augmented reality.

This is a project  currently  looking for funding on kickstarter -
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lightup/lightup-learn-by-making
Very nice but the use of augmented reality to 'see' the electricty is the best use of AR I have seen yet

Human Environment Interfaces

Intel like IBM are now thinking about something called Urban computing.  What caught my eye is something they are calling human environment interfaces (HEI)s. Naturally there is a lot of overlap between Architecture and Computing at this point and I'm finding this an interesting development. There seems to be a lot of focus on visualizing urban information they even include stuff like the quantified self ( the quantified City anyone?) . 

Press | ICRI Cities
 Check out the vision.... 

Laser keyboard kit

Laser keyboard kit

This is a laser keyboard you can buy. You can also use it as a above table multi-touch tracker. I've published on the notion of a portable multi-touch system and this seems to be moving such a device forward into the realm of a true product.

CHI2013 and human computer interaction in general on BBC Click

CHI is on the BBC already ( that was fast).

Chi2013 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p017shs1

End of chi

As a researcher I am fully aware you have your bad days and so I decided at my last low to take more time to celebrate my good days.

And this was one. OK I know the neurodiversity talk was risky but I wasn't sure how nervous I was until I finished. I think it went well. I got some great feedback some enthusiastic tweets and even a bit of fan mail( that's a first for me).

After fun and impromptu lunch with Paul surrounded by a posse of masters students I was interviewed by the BBC.

So yeh days don't get better than this, I should be glad, I shouldn't forget a second of it.

Lorna Stewart and Gareth Mitchel - happy BBC people standing like giants amongst the land of Geeks. 

Stakeholders Vs Users

Software engineers tend to talk about stakeholders - product owners, commissioners, support staff,  developers and users. User interface people talk about Users. You might think that the software engineers have got it right after all users are just part of the fluid mix of parties which go to making something right. 

I found this good example of a building from the 2012 Olympics designed by Zaha Hadid. Nice building, the design was done to reflect the fluidity of water. At the bottom is the olympic swimming pool. 

Unfortunately 1700 of the seats on the upper levels couldn't see the pool.  So given all the checks and acceptances by various levels you have to ask your self who was thinking  about this from the users/visitors perspective? Well, no one clearly. It was a rush job and mistakes were made ( it happens in Architecture). Now in this case it should have been fairly obvious, but its easy to see the error when it's something tangible like a building.  In the situation of software you can see that the stakeholders approach can de-prioritise the user's perspective. 
That's why for human computer interaction we act as advocates of the users' view because in the long run a software project is only as good as the people who use it. 

Space syntax

Once of my early jobs at UCL was writing a program called Axman.  It was my first huge bit of Mac Programming. Here is the BBC presenting this work called Space Syntax on Tomorrows world. I had a few days off as they borrowed my Mac II to do the filming! 



I also did the 3D rendering!  The student in the film is now a company director.

Neurodiversity talk over at CHI2013

Well this was autism awareness month ( April ) and I think I did a good job of raising the awareness of neurodiversity to the human computer interaction community. 

I got praise ( on twitter ) for the quality of the talk and I hope I the message over with enough clarity. It's good to know I haven't lost the talk mojo to a large crowd. Hopefully with this kind of impact we might get some good done.  

Lots of applause at the end from a crowded room ( people where even standing on the back row). Hopefully this year or next I can present something a bit more substantial. 

Its a good day and makes all the hassle worth while.