<!–Speaker: Umer Rashid, SACHI, University of St Andrews
Date/Time: 1-2pm April 26th, 2011
Location: 1.33a Jack Cole, University of St Andrews (directions)–>
Abstract:

While the portability of mobile devices makes them desirable for pervasive access to information, their small screen real estate and the lack of peripheral input devices often impose restriction on the amount of information to be displayed and manipulated on them. This talk provides an overview of our work that explores the ways the mobile screens can be used with large external displays to complement the inherent limitations of each device and create an enhanced user experience. This work is particularly focused on the analysis of visual attention switch and its impact on user performance for designing an interaction space distributed across heterogeneous display devices.
About Umer:
Umer Rashid is a PhD student in School of Computer Science, University of St. Andrews. He received his BS in computer systems engineering from GIK Institute, Pakistan and MS in Information & Communications from Gwangju Institute of Science & Technology, South Korea. His research interests include software engineering and human-computer-interaction in context-aware pervasive computing environments.

<!–Speaker: Per Ola Kristensson, SACHI, University of St Andrews
Date/Time: 1-2pm April 12th, 2011
Location: 1.33a Jack Cole, University of St Andrews (directions)–>
Abstract:

Text entry methods are designed with attention to two objective functions above anything else: high entry rates and a low error rates. However, similar to most other user interfaces, it is likely that users’ satisfaction in using them and ability to use them effectively is the result of many more design traits. This point becomes particularly important to consider when we observe that, despite literally hundreds of mobile text entry methods being proposed in the literature, extremely few of these have gained wider user adoption. To understand why this is, we propose a framework for designing and analyzing mobile text entry methods. Using this framework we analyze the traits of mainstream text entry methods and find that two traits stand out: familiarity and a high effective entry rate. While familiarity is important to consider, too much emphasis on it may risk trapping us forever in a local optimum with multiple similarly performing text entry methods (the so-called path dependency phenomenon). Therefore it is also important to consider the high effective rate. However, what is a sufficiently high entry rate? We propose limiting the search for ever higher entry rates by targeting the inviscid entry rate: the entry rate in which users’ creativity rather than the text entry method is the bottle-neck for efficient text entry. Via a crowdsourcing experiment we have estimated the population mean of the inviscid entry rate to about 50 wpm. When mobile text entry methods have reached this point it may be more worthwhile to consider alternative design dimensions that are currently neglected, such as robustness, comfort and user engagement.
About Per Ola:
Per Ola Kristensson is a Lecturer in Human Computer Interaction at the University of St Andrews. Previously he was a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge.

<!–Speaker: Chris Speed, Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Date/Time: 1-2pm March 29th, 2011
Location: 1.33a Jack Cole, University of St Andrews (directions)–>
Abstract:
The term ‘internet of things’ refers to the technical and cultural shift that is anticipated as society moves to a ubiquitous form of computing in which every device is ‘on’, and every device is connected in some way to the internet. However, many versions of the ‘internet of things’ rely upon one premise: that the thing remains in existence. This paper forecasts a near future when digital memories that have been associated with artefacts remain as the only reference to that thing, because that thing has been lost or disposed of. Remaining as entries in databases whilst its material instantiation has been crushed, burnt or tipped into a landfill, the immaterial artefact has the potential to live on within the networks society. Alive and well in the cloud, these ghosts will haunt their makers, distributors, vendors and owners forever, remaining as searchable artefacts that can be correlated against any other data from the past, present or future.
In this seminar Chris Speed will reflect upon recent research / art projects that evoke a sense of time and exhume personal memories of the past.
About Chris:
Dr. Chris Speed is Reader in Digital Spaces at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture where he teaches undergraduate, masters and supervises PhD students.

Chris has sustained a critical enquiry into how digital technology can engage with the field of architecture and human geography through a variety of established international digital art contexts including: International Symposium on Electronic Art, Biennial of Electronic Arts Perth, Ars Electronica, Consciousness Reframed, Sonic Acts, LoveBytes, We Love Technology, Sonic Arts Festival, MELT, Less Remote, FutureSonic, and the Arts Catalyst / Leonardo symposium held alongside The International Astronautical Congress.
Chris is currently working with collaborative GPS technologies and the streaming of social and environmental data. He is the lead academic on a GPS tool for historical maps iPhone application: Walking Through Time, is the leader of a large UK academic team investigating social memory within the ‘Internet of Things’ funded by the UK Research Councils and is the co-developer for the locative media application Comob Net available for download in the Apple iPhone App Store developed in conjunction with Jen Southern (independent artist) and colleagues from ECA and Uni Edinburgh.

Aaron will give a research colloquium on Information Visualisation on March 7th, 2011.
Abstract:
Societies continued reliance on information and communications technologies has resulted in organizations generating, gathering, and storing “raw data” at a rate growing each year. The ability for even a mid-sized organization to store tens to hundreds of terabytes of data is already within reach. Massive storage technologies are rapidly outstripping our ability to effectively analyse, explore, and understand such voluminous data. While research in other fields such as data mining, machine learning and knowledge management are also attempting to aid in the analysis of such voluminous data,
there is a realisation that the “human-in-the-loop” affords a visual analysis not possible through automation alone.
As such, the area of visual analytics extends the fields of scientific and information visualization by incorporating techniques from knowledge management, statistical analysis, cognitive science and decision science. This talk will outline how voluminous data is modeled, managed,
mined and hence visually presented for exploration. Several large scale data and information visualisation methods will be described and discussed along with the a number of challenges and open research questions we face as researchers in using visualisation in an attempt to present information.
More: School Website Details

Title: “Serious Games” – Metrics for the Design of Educational Computer Games
Speaker: Dr. Azizah Jaafar, National University of Malaysia.