On the 9th February 2016 Dr David Harris-Birtill gave a talk on the automated remote pulse oximeter system work that is in development in SACHI, and which his start-up company Beyond Medics Limited is working to commercialise. This was a great day in which 20 companies gave short 3 minute pitches describing their businesses. At the event, David also met Prince Andrew, and had the opportunity to discuss this exciting work with other companies and funding groups, including Scottish Enterprise.
News
Last week we were pleased to receive our Microsoft Surface hub which was awarded to us by Microsoft Research and Microsoft based on our Academic Research Request Proposal for the “Intelligent Canvas for Data Analysis and Exploration”. You can see a couple of videos of the unboxing below!
MORE
Abstract
There is a huge and complex social psychology to managing client engagements effectively. Merely presenting actionable solutions that have valid data to back them up is not enough for clients. They become lost with the simplest of justifications and proof often focusing factors of little importance to the end users. In this talk I will offer some meeting navigation concepts that will enable people to facilitate client meetings, establish and reach defined outcomes and establish clear dialog and interaction methods.
Abstract
Visualising dynamic graphs is important for many application areas. For social media networks, they can help us understand the interaction and interests of users online. In biology, they can illustrate the interactions between genes and biological processes. Understanding and designing effective visualisation methods for dynamic network data is fundamental to these areas as well as many others. In this talk, we focus on the effective presentation of dynamic networks. In particular, we summarise recent results on dynamic graph visualisation with respect to animation (presentation of interactive movies of the data), small multiples (presenting the data through several linked windows like a comic book), and drawing stability (the visual stability of the data presentation). We conclude with some recent work on scalable graph visualisation and in the visualisation of sets and their intersections.
MORE
Abstract
In this talk I will present experiences and insights from our studies involving locative media, local history and community. Our work in the village of Wray has involved the longitudinal and ‘in the wild’ deployment of ‘digital noticeboard’ displays (conceived as technology probes) that support the sharing of photos/images. A significant portion of the submitted photo content relates to Wray’s local history and features of Wray’s landscape. Residents of the village have helped shape the system through involvement in co-design workshops. A key motivation of our current studies (as part of the SHARC project) is to explore issues around the co-curation of locative media experiences. A field trial (involving both residents and visitors) and a design workshop revealed both opportunities and challenges for the co-curation approach.
Abstract
Most experiences in life are punctuated by a closure experience. In the past these were profound; however, over generations we have distanced ourselves from meaningful closure experiences thanks to our lifestyles increasing in comfort, the church weakening and medicine advancing.
This has seemingly freed us from the shackles of the ultimate closure experience – death – and sanctioning our personal pursuit of heaven on earth in the form of consumption. We are now encouraged to drunkenly stumble from purchase to purchase, with any sense of longevity and responsibility removed.
Long term side effects of this are exampled in the Product, Service and Digital landscapes that we frequent. The consequences of our behaviour results in a changing climate, industries fined billions for mis-selling and individuals casually eroding their personal online reputations.
Many of us are active in the creation of services, products or digital products; making them attractive, engaging and usable for consumers, but we often overlook concluding these experiences for the user in a responsible way. Closure Experiences offers a model to frame this change.
Bio
Joe Macleod has been working in the mobile design space since 1998 and has been involved in a pretty diverse range of projects. At Nokia he helped develop some of the most streamlined packaging in the world, he created a hack team to disrupt the corporate drone of powerpoint, produced mobile services for pregnant women in Africa and pioneered lighting behavior for millions of phones. For the last four years he has been key to establishing ustwo as the UKs best digital product studio, with 180 people globally in London, New York, Sydney and Sweden, while also successfully building education initiatives, curriculums and courses on the back of the IncludeDesign campaign which launched in 2013. He now works independently on projects and has recently established established Closure Experiences, a new business looking at issues around consumption, consumerism and designing the end of things.
Abstract
For many of us, interacting with data on mobile devices such as phones and tablets is commonplace in our lives, e.g. phone call data, TV guide, maps, fitness and wearable data. With the introduction of smart watches, the screen size of mobile devices has dramatically decreased. This reduction in screen real estate provides challenges for the design of interfaces, including the presentation and exploration of data visualisations. Using bar charts as an example, this presentation will explore the shortcomings of current zooming techniques on very small screens and consider proposed guidelines for the development of simple data exploration applications. Key design features such as the need for overview and context will be considered in respect to a simple and effective data exploration task.
Biography
Rachel Menzies is a lecturer and Head of Undergraduate Studies (Computing) at the School of Science and Engineering at the University of Dundee. Her research interests include user centred design with marginalised user groups, such as users with disabilities, as well as exploring novel interfaces, data visualisation and CS education. Rachel is an Accessibility and Usability Consultant with the Human Centred Computing Consultancy, run by the University of Dundee, and has worked for many large international clients as well as providing bespoke training sessions to small companies.
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