When:  Thursday June 15th
Where:  Maths Seminar Room 2
Time:  14:00 – 15:00
Title:  New Approaches to Mode-Switching
Abstract:  The fundamental unit of all interaction is issuing commands, and the trickiest types of commands are those that control “modes” — different ways to map the same input to different application actions. For example, the current mode in a tablet drawing app could determine if the exact same sequence of touch movements draws a line, pans the canvas, makes a marquee selection, or issues a gestural command. Switching between modes like these are frequent, so finding optimum mode-switching methods is important.  In this talk, I survey my group’s work to understand and improve mode-switching and command selection for different input types and device form factors. These include: Pin-and-Cross, a touch overloading technique combining static touches with nearby crossing selection; Conté, a pen-like input device that leverages small changes in contact geometry; Doppio, a reconfigurable two-faced smartwatch for tangible input; and Gunslinger, a mid-air interaction technique using bare hand postures and gestures performed in a relaxed arms-down position.
MORE

Thursday, May 18 from 10am – 1pm at the School of Computer Science

Technology fundamentally shapes our communication, relationships, and access to information. It also evolves through our interaction with it. Dialoguing across disciplines can facilitate an understanding of these complex and reciprocal relationships and fuel reflection and innovation.
This hands-on, participant-driven and experimental workshop will start a discussion of what can come from considering technology through a philosophical lens. MORE

Papers are due for this workshop on May 19th. In this workshop we are interested in object recognition work based on computer vision, radar (e.g. Project Soli by the Google ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects)), acoustic sensing, tagging, smart objects etc. This workshop is on Sept 4th in Vienna, Austria in conjunction with MobileHCI 2017.
Full workshop details can be found here: http://sachi.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/activities/workshops/mobilehci-17/

Pedagogy & Physicalization: Designing Learning Activities around Physical Data Representations
This workshop will be held as part of the DIS 2017 conference, June 10-14, Edinburgh, UK
For complete details please visit: http://dataphys.org/workshops/dis17/
 
Call for Participation  
In an age where data and their various representations proliferates many aspects of our professional and private lives, a new form of awareness and visual literacy is required that enables people to decipher, interpret, critically discuss and actively engage in activities around this public and/or personal data and its (visual) representations. Previous case studies have found Physicalization to be a productive way to introduce people of different ages, and with different backgrounds, to activities around data collection, processing, and representation.
MORE

When: Tuesday 11th April
Time: 14:00 – 15:00
Where: Cole 1.33A
Title: Co-Designed, Collocated & Playful Mobile Interactions
Abstract: Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets were originally conceived and have traditionally been utilized for individual use. Research on mobile collocated interactions has explored situations in which collocated users engage in collaborative activities using their mobile devices, thus going from personal/individual toward shared/multiuser experiences and interactions.
MORE

SACHI will have a great presence at the upcoming CHI’16 conference .
We welcome the opportunity to meet students interested in studying with us, colleagues interested in visiting or collaborating, or companies interested in our work. You can find us helping and involved throughout CHI 2016 with the presentation of 5 full papers, 1 note, 1 workshop, 1 workshop paper and other activities.
MORE

San Francisco, CA, USA, 27th February 2016.
Submission due date: 22nd December 2015 (notifications in time for early registration), or 8th January 2016.
https://collocatedinteraction.wordpress.com/
 
ABSTRACT
In the 25 years since Ellis, Gibbs, and Rein proposed the time-space taxonomy, research in the ‘same time, same place’ quadrant has diversified, perhaps even fragmented. The goal of this one-day workshop is to bring together researchers with diverse, yet convergent interests in tabletop, surface, mobile and wearable technologies, and those interested in the social aspects of interaction, such as conversation analysis and ethnomethodology. These communities have matured considerably, and produced significant exemplars of systems, methods, and studies concerned with collocated interactions. Yet, new challenges abound as people wear and carry more devices than ever, creating fragmented device ecologies at work, and changing the ways we socialise with each other. In this workshop we seek to start a dialogue to look back as well as forward, review best practices, discuss and design paper-prototypes using the collocated design framework, to consider how we might address new and future challenges through collocated design practice.
MORE

Tangible Data, explorations in data physicalization @ TEI’16 Eindhoven 14th & 16th Feb 2016
http://dataphys.org/workshops/tei16/
Call for Participation
We are pleased to announce our studio-workshop “Tangible Data, Explorations in Data Physicalization”, which will take place at TEI’16 in Eindhoven on the 14th and 16th February 2016. This workshop addresses both experienced researchers and practitioners as well as those who are new to the field but interested in applying Data Physicalization to their own (research) practice. The workshop will provide opportunities for participants to explore Data Physicalization hands-on, by creating their own prototypes built with tangible media including digital fabrication technologies. These practical explorations will lead into reflective discussions on the role tangibles and embodiment play in Data Physicalization and the future research challenges for this area.
MORE

• San Jose, CA, USA
• 7th May 2016
• Submission due date: 8th January 2016

https://proxemicmci.wordpress.com/
ABSTRACT
Recent research on mobile collocated interactions has been looking at situations in which collocated users engage in collaborative activities using their mobile devices. However, existing practices fail to fully account for the culturally-dependent spatial relationships between people and their digital devices (i.e. the proxemic relationships). Building on the ideas of proxemic interactions, this workshop is motivated by the concept of ‘proxemic mobile collocated interactions’, to harness new or existing technologies to create engaging and interactionally relevant experiences. Such approaches would allow devices to not only react to presence and interaction, but also other indicators, such as the interpersonal distance people naturally use in everyday life.
MORE

Friday night was games night at SACHI, this week featuring a couple of scary games for Halloween!  The night began with pizza followed by three rounds of social deduction game One Night Ultimate Warewolf.  The main event was the Cthulhu themed Elder Sign from the designers of Arkham Horror.

Fortunately the team was able to stave off the imminent return of the Ancient Ones to enjoy the delicious range of cakes and other treats provided by or own Fearn Bishop.  Thanks Fearn!