Design - Royal Philips Electronics
Steve's Commentary
Philips has done a lot of innovative design and research work. This link is an entry point into a lot of great content. Take a good look at the Research -> Technologies A-Z links.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Elastic Presentation Spaces
GRUVI | Graphics + Usability + Visualization: "Elastic Presentation Spaces
Adjunct Faculty: David Fracchia
A fundamental issue in user interface design is the effective use of available screen space, commonly referred to as the screen real estate problem. Elastic Presentation Spaces (ex-3DPS) is a new distortion-based viewing tool for exploring large information spaces through the use of a three-dimensional pliable surface. Arbitrarily-shaped regions (foci) on the surface may be selected and pulled towards or pushed away from the viewer thereby increasing or decreasing the level of detail contained within each region. Furthermore, multiple foci are smoothly blended together such that there is no loss of context. The manipulation and blending of foci is accomplished using a fairly simple mathematical model based on gaussian curves. This approach utilizes precognitive perceptual cues about the three-dimensional surface to make the distortions more comprehensible, and allows the user to interactively control the location, shape, and extent of the distortion.
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Steve's Commentary
Another cool project from GRUVI.
Adjunct Faculty: David Fracchia
A fundamental issue in user interface design is the effective use of available screen space, commonly referred to as the screen real estate problem. Elastic Presentation Spaces (ex-3DPS) is a new distortion-based viewing tool for exploring large information spaces through the use of a three-dimensional pliable surface. Arbitrarily-shaped regions (foci) on the surface may be selected and pulled towards or pushed away from the viewer thereby increasing or decreasing the level of detail contained within each region. Furthermore, multiple foci are smoothly blended together such that there is no loss of context. The manipulation and blending of foci is accomplished using a fairly simple mathematical model based on gaussian curves. This approach utilizes precognitive perceptual cues about the three-dimensional surface to make the distortions more comprehensible, and allows the user to interactively control the location, shape, and extent of the distortion.
"
Steve's Commentary
Another cool project from GRUVI.
Single Display Groupware - Supporting Face-to-Face Collaboration
GRUVI | Graphics + Usability + Visualization: "The dominant paradigm in computer interaction assumes that one computer is dedicated to one user at any one time. This ignores the fact that in many social environments, such as school or the workplace, people are often required to communicate and work collaboratively. The research area of Single Display Groupware (SDG) attempts to address this problem by finding effective ways to allow groups of two or more people to collaborate using a shared computer display.
Our research includes the following projects:
Foundational SDG Research
Multiple Input Devices
Shared Views
Public and Private Views
SDG in Medical Image Viewing
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Steve's Commentary
I like the potential this offers for improved collaboration.
Our research includes the following projects:
Foundational SDG Research
Multiple Input Devices
Shared Views
Public and Private Views
SDG in Medical Image Viewing
"
Steve's Commentary
I like the potential this offers for improved collaboration.
Moving & Rotating Documents on Tabletop Displays
GRUVI | Graphics + Usability + Visualization: "Moving & Rotating Documents on Tabletop Displays
Alumni: Daryn Mitchell
Computers have provided powerful tools for us to work with documents, and we heard predictions of an imminent \\\'paperless\\\' office. Yet we still use so much paper.
An uncommon interface, tabletop computer displays, have the potential to improve document interaction on computers.
Paper allows many things not usually supported on computers, such as
Handwritten annotations while reading
Fast, two-handed navigation through documents
Fast, flexible spatial layout with concurrent access to multiple documents.
(O'Hara, K. and Sellen, A.. A comparison of reading paper and on-line documents. In proceedings of conference on Human factors in computing systems, 1997, Pages 335 - 342.)
This project attempts to identify what people do with paper and design useful interaction techniques for working with electronic documents. Potential issues are document orientation (a problem not know vertical displays) and manipulation of paper off the surface of the table (which is not available on most tabletop displays).
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Steve's Commentary
Here is a project in British Columbia on rotating documents on tabletop displays. Discussion around tabletop displays seems to be more common lately, although I haven't seen any products on the market.
Alumni: Daryn Mitchell
Computers have provided powerful tools for us to work with documents, and we heard predictions of an imminent \\\'paperless\\\' office. Yet we still use so much paper.
An uncommon interface, tabletop computer displays, have the potential to improve document interaction on computers.
Paper allows many things not usually supported on computers, such as
Handwritten annotations while reading
Fast, two-handed navigation through documents
Fast, flexible spatial layout with concurrent access to multiple documents.
(O'Hara, K. and Sellen, A.. A comparison of reading paper and on-line documents. In proceedings of conference on Human factors in computing systems, 1997, Pages 335 - 342.)
This project attempts to identify what people do with paper and design useful interaction techniques for working with electronic documents. Potential issues are document orientation (a problem not know vertical displays) and manipulation of paper off the surface of the table (which is not available on most tabletop displays).
"
Steve's Commentary
Here is a project in British Columbia on rotating documents on tabletop displays. Discussion around tabletop displays seems to be more common lately, although I haven't seen any products on the market.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Demand for IT certifications on the rise - Computerworld
Demand for IT certifications on the rise - Computerworld: "Now that demand for certification is picking up strength, CompTIA is looking to add certification classes for radio frequency identification and voice over IP. McCarthy said he isn't sure when those courses might be introduced."
Steve's Commentary
This is the first time I've heard about the possibility of certifications for RFID technology.
Steve's Commentary
This is the first time I've heard about the possibility of certifications for RFID technology.
InformationWeek > RFID > Business Technology: RFID: Time To Take A Stand > February 21, 2005
InformationWeek > RFID > Business Technology: RFID: Time To Take A Stand > February 21, 2005: "Sensing defeat, the ACLU and other hand-wringers crank up to attempt to squelch RFID initiatives regardless of potential benefits these technologies and related business-process improvements might offer, Bob Evans says."
Steve's Commentary
This article examines some of the privacy fears of RFID and asks companies to look at their position on the debate. Do you see RFID as a good thing or a bad thing?
Steve's Commentary
This article examines some of the privacy fears of RFID and asks companies to look at their position on the debate. Do you see RFID as a good thing or a bad thing?
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Study: Cell phones scramble DNA | Tech News on ZDNet
Study: Cell phones scramble DNA | Tech News on ZDNet: "Radio waves from mobile phones harm body cells and damage DNA in laboratory conditions, according to a new study majority-funded by the European Union, researchers said on Monday. "
Steve's Commentary
I've read articles of a similar vain for as long as I've had a cell phone, and each one reinforces my impression that cell phones need to be used judiciously. We haven't had the technology long enough to study the long term effects of cell phone radiation, but there is certainly reason for further study. I just heard a specific story of a person who developed a rare form of brain cancer after excessively using a cell phone over a period of 2 to 3 years. This happened to have taken place in the early 90s, when networks were analog, but there is still reason for concern today. There is no indesputable proof that it this person's cancer was caused by his cell phone, but he was a healthy guy in his 30s and the tumor happened to form on the same side of his head where he used his phone. I'm not making any claims, but I am saying that I plan on being a little more concsious of my airtime and use of a headset.
Steve's Commentary
I've read articles of a similar vain for as long as I've had a cell phone, and each one reinforces my impression that cell phones need to be used judiciously. We haven't had the technology long enough to study the long term effects of cell phone radiation, but there is certainly reason for further study. I just heard a specific story of a person who developed a rare form of brain cancer after excessively using a cell phone over a period of 2 to 3 years. This happened to have taken place in the early 90s, when networks were analog, but there is still reason for concern today. There is no indesputable proof that it this person's cancer was caused by his cell phone, but he was a healthy guy in his 30s and the tumor happened to form on the same side of his head where he used his phone. I'm not making any claims, but I am saying that I plan on being a little more concsious of my airtime and use of a headset.
Friday, December 17, 2004
RFID dodges royalties bullet | Tech News on ZDNet
RFID dodges royalties bullet | Tech News on ZDNet: "A cloud hanging over the future of radio frequency identification technology disappeared Thursday with the news that a key technical standard won't result in royalty fees. "
Steve's Commentary
This should only help the growth of RFID. I'm still waiting for a refridgerator that will tell me how long my food has been in there and if it has expired.
Steve's Commentary
This should only help the growth of RFID. I'm still waiting for a refridgerator that will tell me how long my food has been in there and if it has expired.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Augmenting Tabletop Design for Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Augmenting Tabletop Design for Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Steve'e Commentary
This is a research paper by a team in Darmstadt, Germany. It presents an analysis of the different kinds of traditional tables that exist in an office environment, then starts to address some of the design issues for interactive tables with examples found in existing research.
Steve'e Commentary
This is a research paper by a team in Darmstadt, Germany. It presents an analysis of the different kinds of traditional tables that exist in an office environment, then starts to address some of the design issues for interactive tables with examples found in existing research.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Argonne National Labs Research on Collaboration
MCS Research: "Collaborative and Virtual EnvironmentsResearchers in the Futures Lab explore new collaborative environment technologies that combine advanced networking, virtual space technology, and high-end immersive visualization environments. Our aim: to enable the development of wide-area collaborative computational science. Our focus: the development and evaluation of high-end technologies and systems that extend and complement commercially available tools. Our motivation: the belief that teleimmersion provides the ideal framework for exploring new ideas in collaborative VR environments, advanced scientific visualization, interfaces to high-performance computing sysdefault3.astems, networking concepts, and related human performance issues. Our projects include the Access Grid and Active Mural."
Steve's Commentary
This advanced research at "Argonne National Labs" is in their Mathematics and Computer Science Division. Their goal is to increase scientific productivity and collaboration is a key aspect of that. Their Scientific Workspaces of the Future sounds particularly interesting. Some of the meeting notes contain references to some of the technologies they are looking at.
Steve's Commentary
This advanced research at "Argonne National Labs" is in their Mathematics and Computer Science Division. Their goal is to increase scientific productivity and collaboration is a key aspect of that. Their Scientific Workspaces of the Future sounds particularly interesting. Some of the meeting notes contain references to some of the technologies they are looking at.
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