Paper Reading #8: Thanatosensitively designed technologies for bereavement support

Comments:



Reference Information:

Title: Thanatosensitively designed technologies for bereavement support
Author: Michael Massimi
Presentation Venue: CHI EA '10 Proceedings of the 28th of the international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems


Summary:

The researcher is looking at the space of time in a person's life after the loss of a loved one and the way in which computing technologies can better the person's subjective experience in that area. Their research is concerned with thanatosensitive design, which is the design of technologies that are actively engaged in mortality issues.

The thesis for the work is comprised of three stages. The first of these stages consisted of interviews conducted with those in the stage of bereavement on how they "inherit, use, and reflect upon personal technologies." The second of these stages has to do with elaborating on the methodology. Finally, the third stage is about evaluating how to best utilize technology for those currently or expecting to be in bereavement.

Discussion:

Understanding how technology can better make our lives in the difficult time of bereavement is one I look forward to. Possibly more than the average student, I can see the pending mortality of my own parents who are entering the fourth quarter of their lives. While I may not be as close to my parents as other people, I think there is still a grand possibility that I may be struck more deeply on an emotional level than I anticipate.

For one, I am sure I will begin to look at my own mortality in a more striking light. I am not getting any younger, either, and am currently looking around the corner at middle age. I could have my own personal midlife crisis at any moment now! If there were good technologies available that I could have access to to get through morning periods in a more upbeat fashion, I'm all for it.

Ethnography Results, Week 2

TBD

Book Reading #16: Opening Skinner's Box

Chapter 4

Summary:



Discussion:

Book Reading #15: Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 5

Summary:


Discussion:

Book Reading #14: Design of Everyday Things

Chapter 14

Summary:



Discussion:

Paper Reading #7: Real-time interaction with supervised learning

Comments:

TBD

Reference Information:

Title: Real-time interaction with supervised learning

Authors: Rebecca Fiebrink of Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

Presentation Venue: CHI EA '10 Proceedings of the 28th of the international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems

Summary:

The researcher of this paper is working on a project to determine how the design of certain user interfaces will affect the interaction with machine learning algorithms. By utilizing this approach, the researcher hopes that the artificial intelligence concept of machine learning can be easily integrated into a package that works well for a human user in a real-time environment.

One of the researcher's primary goals is to determine how effective this approach will be for users who do not have a lot of technical knowledge. Through this research, they hope to determine how this will influence the design of HCI interfaces and how it will be perceived and utilized.

Discussion:

Machine learning is an intriguing topic. I find the possibilities envisioned in science fiction literature about the potential capabilities of robots or androids to be fascinating subject. I can see that research done in this field could possibly lead to that. This might be one step on the road to that.

Of course, the argument against creating anthropomorphic automatons on the sole criterion of form factor will come up. Why should be make robots in our own image? I think that many robots do not need to be made up with a human likeness. Robots that would receive greater utility from a different form factor, like having wheels, for example, would be the way to go. However, I can see the desire for humans to create robots that resemble people. It has fascinated popular literature for much of the last century. I don't see that interest in the popular culture waning any time soon. It almost seems that the interface developed from this research would be the human resembling robot.

Paper Reading # 6: Studying and tackling temporal challenges in mobile HCI

Comments:



Reference Information:

Title: Studying and tackling temporal challenges in mobile HCI
Author: Joel E. Fischer
Presentation Venue: CHI EA '10 Proceedings of the 28th of the international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems

Summary:

The topic addressed in this paper by the researchers concerns determining a proper time to provide interruptions to the users when there is some needed or useful input the program can use in a mobile setting. This has been demonstrated to be a difficult problem due to the difficulties in being able to know in advance the state of the individual being interrupted, since it is constantly affected by location and time. Without being able to make people wear complicated sensors to feed data into their programs, it is a difficult task to gather this data to make the decision on interruption in longer narratives provided by such things a mobile games. 

One of the key items being examined by the researches is the concept of receptivity. This refers not only to the event of the interruption, but to the persons reaction to the interruption, as well. It is uncertain how the person will react to the interruption. The goal of the research is to attempt to minimize negative responses from the users and maximize the benefits the users receive from such interruptions.

Discussion:


This was an interesting topic from the stand point of being a user. Sometimes, the interruptions I receive -- on my phone, for example -- are useful and I appreciate that they have been provided to me. Things of this nature include the input I get when I receive an important text message or a notification in my email that I have received a notification that my text book has shipped from the publisher.

This is a double-edge sword upon occasion, though, as I have to content with other annoying messages in my mobile space. These include such things as spam from people I don't know, whom I don't care about, and that I want nothing to do with. Additionally, I don't need to know when someone sent me a gift in Farmville or other social gaming application. Thanks, Zynga!

Timing is also an issue. I don't need to receive notifications in the middle of my hard and heavy mid-term examination while I am taking it. After would suffice, but without knowing the timing of the exam, it would be hard to determine when the bad time to send that notification is. I think there is potential in this research and I look forward to seeing how it can be dealt with.