Interactive Multimedia Technology

Oct 19, 2010

End of GOOG-411, Google's "phoneme harvesting operation" - via Pogue's Posts

Here's a quick link to a recent "Pogue's Post":

Farewell, GOOG-411
NYT 10/14/10

Google: In Service of Data

"On Nov. 12, Google will turn of 800-GOOG-411 forever...It was one of the best, juiciest, most useful services in all phonedom...In case you missed it, GOOG-411 is a free, voice-activated directory assistance service..."

Pogue goes on to quote Google's Marissa Mayer, from a 2007 InfoWorld presentation:
"If you want us to build a really robust speech model, we need a lot of phonemes, which is a syllable as spoken by a particular voice with a particular intonation. So we need a lot of people talking, saying things so we can ultimately train off of that. So 1-800-GOOG-411 is about that: Getting a bunch of different speech samples."

RELATED
Comments to Pogue's Post, Farewell, GOOG-411

Schalkwyk, J., Beeferman, D. Beaufays, F., Byrne B., Chelba, C., Cohen, M., Garret, M., Strope, B. (Google, Inc.) Google Search by Voice: A case study (pdf)

Google Shuts Down GOOG-411
Google Operating System Blog

SOMEWHAT RELATED
Android phones are secretly collecting private user data
Andrew Wozny, Canada Social Media Examiner

Some Android apps caught covertly sending GPS data to advertisers
Ryan Paul, Ars Technica

Best Practices for Handling Android User Data
Nick Kralevich, Tim Bray, Android Developers 8/4/10

Why Google keeps your data forever, tracks you with ads
Nate Anderson, Ars Technica

Google's Eric Schmidt: You can trust us with your data
Shane Richman, Telegraph UK 7/10/10

"Out My Window", a web-based, interactive 360-degree panorama, multimedia storytelling/documentary creation, directed by Katerina Cizek, of the National Film Board of Canada

Innovative Interactivity (II): Latest post

National Film Board of Canada's "Out My Window", part of the Highrise Project.

Tracey Boyer, founder and managing editor of the Innovative Interactivity blog, recently posted about "Out My Window", a web-based interactive documentary filmed in 360-degree panoramic video, directed by Katerina Cizek, a participant of the National Film Board of Canada’s Filmmaker-in-Residence (FIR) project.

After I read Tracy's blog post and explored her link to Out My Window, I felt that it was worth sharing it on this blog. Tracy's post provides a good description of the project, which represents a collaboration of over 100 people from around the world: Multimedia must-see: NFB's interactive 360 panorama documentary, "Out my window"

The opening page/view/scene of Out My Window provides the following description to the viewers/participants:

"You see them all over the world.
Concrete residential highrise buildings are the most commonly built form of the last century.
On the outside, they all look the same. But inside these towers, people create community, art, and meaning. Explore."

For the best experience, I recommend that you take the time to find a nice large touch-screen display or IWB to participate in the documentary - and maybe with a friend or colleague. (Some of the content is in French.) I also recommend that you take Tracy Boyer's advice and make sure you experience the interactive documentary with a good speaker system. The soundtrack is awesome!

HIGHRISE Trailer

The NFB's Highrise project unveils its new interactive web documentary, Out My Window
Julie Matlin, NFB.ca Blog, 10/15/10

About HIGHRISE and Director Katerina Cizek (From the Highrise website)

"HIGHRISE is a multi-year, multi-media, collaborative documentary project about the human experience in global vertical suburbs. Under the direction of documentary-maker Katerina Cizek, the HIGHRISE team will be making lots of things. Web-documentaries, live presentations, installations, mobile projects and yes, documentary films. We will use the acclaimed interventionist and participatory approaches of the award-winning National Film Board of Canada’s Filmmaker-in-Residence (FIR) project. Our scale will be global, but rooted firmly in the FIR philosophy — putting people, process, creativity, collaboration, and innovation first.

In the first Filmmaker-in-Residence project, we worked at a major inner-city teaching hospital with doctors, nurses, researchers, and patients, challenging the conventional notions of “documentary” and academic research — and did more than just observe and record. We produced dozens of documentaries — and photo exhibits, participatory media workshops, and a feature-length web documentary.

How can the same approach be applied to urbanism? How can documentary help re-invent our cities at their edges? By going global and local at the same time, HIGHRISE is based in intensive community collaboration, married to an international vision for what documentary can be."

RELATED
Yellowbird 360 Video:
"See the world like never before with 360 video. Can you imagine? People like to look at 360 photos of the streets they live on, or discover their next holiday destination. How exciting, if it was a full-motion 360 video instead of a still image? With 360 video you can create ultimate online expereince for your clients. Share real-life settings of the environments or events...Press play and look anywhere you want to by clicking and dragging your mouse."

Interactive 360-degree video demo-reel from Yellowbird
Yellowbird 6-lens 360 degree video camera creates web-based, interactive 3D videos

Information Visualization for the People: The End of Swivel & Lessons Learned - a great post by Robert Kosara (Eager Eyes)

The following post is worth reading:

The Rise and Fall of Swivel.com
Robert Kosara, Eager Eyes 10/12/10

Swivel.com is (was) a web-based information visualization company that incorporated the concept of "social visualization" by providing a means for people to explore and interact with large data sets, and then share their insights with others. Robert Kosara's recent blog post about the demise of the company sheds some light on how a company with a great concept withered away.

RELATED
Why Swivel Shut Down
Nathan Yau, Flowing Data 10/19/10

Swivel vs. Many Eyes

(Image taken from Robert Kosara's Eager Eyes blog)

Review: Swivel vs. Many Eyes (Robert Kosara, 2/18/07, Eager Eyes)

Many Eyes
"The site will be down from 10 a.m. EST until the move is complete, which should take a day or two if all goes well. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this causes, but it will ensure a more reliable service in the long run." 10/19/10-Many Eyes Blog

About Robert Kosara - from eagereyes.org

"Robert Kosara is Assistant Professor of Computer Science at UNC Charlotte. His main research interests are information visualization for visual communication and theoretical foundations of visualization. Robert received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Vienna University of Technology (Vienna, Austria). His list of publications can be found online on his vanity website.

Robert can be found on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Xing. You can use this site's contact form to send him an email."

About Nathan Yau & Flowing Data - from flowingdata.com

"FlowingData explores how designers, statisticians, and computer scientists are using data to understand ourselves better - mainly through data visualization. Money spent, reps at the gym, time you waste, and personal information you enter online are all forms of data. How can we understand these data flows? Data visualization lets non-experts make sense of it all...As for me, I'm a PhD candidate in statistics. I live and breathe data. I also have a background in computer science and design. I do some freelancing from time to time, but mostly I'm just trying to work on my dissertation. You can find more about me here."

Oct 18, 2010

Words of Wisdom (and more) from Harry Brignull: UX Roots in Psychology, Design, Info Architecture...and so much more!

Harry Brignull is a User Experience Consultant at Madget in Brighton, England. According to his "about" page info, his work involves "building experiences by blending User Research, Interaction Design, and process consultancy." Harry's 90 Percent of Everything blog is a well-spring of information and inspiration.

Back Story
I came across Harry's work in 2004 or 2005, when I was taking a VR Class (Virtual Reality for Education and Training) and working on an assignment about large-screen displays. At the time, Harry was a Ph.D. working in the Interact Lab at the University of Sussex on the Dynamo project, in collaboration with researchers from the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham.

I revisited this work again in early 2007 when I was studying HCI and Ubiquitous Computing, and researching information about collaborative interaction on large displays in public spaces. The following research article inspired me at the time, and looking back, I consider the work of this team to be seminal, and worth revisiting once again.

Izadi, S., Brignull, H., Rodden, T., Rogers, Y., Underwood, M. (UIST'03)
Dynamo: A public interactive surface supporting the cooperative sharing and exchange of media (pdf)

(The picture was taken from the Dynamo project's website, and shared on my 2007 blog post, Revisiting promising projects, Dynamo, an application for sharing information on large interactive displays in public spaces.)

Links to a few of Harry's useful blog posts:

UX as Applied Psychology:
Clear Reporting & Critical Thinking: Why User Experience Needs to Remember its Roots in Psychology (10/4/10)

"There was a time, back in the early 1990s, when almost everyone involved with UX research had a background in Psychology. Back in those days, the term "User Experience" didn't really exist, and the nearest discipline was Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)..."

Comment:
As a school psychologist, I'm well-steeped in the process of research, observation, and data collection. I also know that the fundamentals of applied psychology are a very important ingredient in UX work. Don Norman, one of the "grandfathers" of UX/HCI, was a cognitive psychologist. He was the co-author of one of my psychology textbooks when I was a university student the first time around. Coincidentally, Norman's book, Design of Everyday Things was required reading for my HCI graduate class.

Mobile Usability Testing for Low Budgets
Mobile Usability Testing Tip: Recording from Two Webcams
In this post, Harry discusses quick and cheap methods of using two webcams for mobile usability testing. This method could be used in other situations, such as developing presentations. (It might also be applicable for use in therapeutic and special education settings.)

Image: Nick Bowmast

UX Brighton Presentation on Dark Patterns: User Interfaces Designed to Trick People
My Presentation on Out of Box Experience Design (Harry Brignall)
David Ogilvy: We Sell or Else

RELATED
Links to Harry's Blog Posts, By Topic

SOMEWHAT RELATED

Essential Interaction Design Essays and Articles: Dan Saffer's Lists, Don Norman, and Interaction Design

Online Physics Games for Interactive Whiteboards and Touch Screens (including mobile devices)

I have collected lots of resources for interactive whiteboards and other touch-screens, such all-in-one Touch PC's such as the Dell and HP TouchSmart. Some are optimized for use on mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and Droids.

I'd like to highlight a few online educational games on this blog from time-to-time.

The PhysicsGames site is full of games that can be embedded into a blog or web page, making it easy for teachers and parents to organize and arrange the games as they see fit. This feature also lets students do the same.

On the main page of the website, the games are arranged in alphabetical order, with picture icons for each game. The titles of the games and the pictures on the icons give you a quick idea of what each game is about. The games were created by a variety of developers, professionals, teachers, and if I'm not mistaken, tech-savvy students.

Below are links to the various categories of physics games found on the site. The games I explored all had music and sound effects, so make sure that the sound is turned on! (Note: The site is supported by sponsors, but the advertising is not annoying-in many cases, you can skip the ads.)

Featured | All | Block Removal | Construction | Demolition | Platform | Projectile | Stacking | Othe

Here are a few examples:

MOONLIGHTS (please be patient, there is an ad!)

Online Physics Games

Video of Moonlights Gameplay

Physics Fidget

Online Physics Games

ROCKET SCIENCE, by NoFunZone.com

Online Physics Games

Cross posted on the TechPsych blog.

Oct 16, 2010

In Honor of Benoit Mandelbrot: Fractals on the Web -Julia Set, set to the video of Jonathan Coultron's "Mandelbrot Set", +more

It must be true : (

The NY Times reports that Benoit Mandelbrot has died at age 85. According to the Times, he passed away on Thursday October 14, 2010, at a hospice in Cambridge, Mass. He had suffered from pancreatic cancer, the same disease that took the life of another one of my inspirational heroes, HCI researcher and computer scientist, Randy Pausch.

"A music video for Jonathan Coulton's song Mandelbrot Set by Pisut Wisessing made in Film 324: Cornell Summer Animation Workshop, taught by animator Lynn Tomlinson every summer for Cornell's summer session, in the department of Theatre, Film & Dance." -Summerkitechenstudio YouTube Channel

I was hoping against hope that the news of Mandelbrot's passing was just a rumor designed by some graduate students to study fractal patterns of social networking. My hunch was a long shot, and I was wrong.

RELATED
Mandelbrot's seminal book, The Fractal Geometry of Nature (1982)