Off-topic: "Communication technology for human-dog interaction" and "The secret life of my dog: design and evaluation of paw tracker concept"...and my dog.

I was reading an article about interactive mobile video and along the way came across a couple of articles about "human-dog interaction" (see references and links below).  Maybe the research will lead to a solution regarding my dog, Tilly.  She does not want me to read or do anything related to technology!

Tilly's a quirky dog who always drops her chew toys on my lap when I am using my iPad or iPhone.  She likes to drop her bone on my iPad, too.

If I am doing something on my laptop, she will close it with her nose or paw.  If she doesn't close it, she will try to put her whole head on the keyboard. The following picture was taken while I was trying to write this post:

If I can find the time, I enjoy reading technical journals, but Tilly doesn't like it one bit. Here she's trying to take an issue of Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing from me!

She chewed up the latest issue of IEEE Spectrum before I could read it:


In the picture below, she's chewing a chew-stick and making sure I don't get anywhere near my short stack of Communications of the ACM journals.  You can tell by her expression that she is probably thinking that the journals might make a tasty snack!



Tilly has NEVER chewed up a fashion or home decor magazine, and she NEVER bothers me when I am cooking or doing household chores.  


Articles:

Paasovaara, S., Paldanius, M., Saarinen, P., Häkkilä, J.,  and Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, K.  The secret life of my dog: design and evaluation of paw tracker concept.  In Proceedings of Mobile HCI. 2011, 231-240.


Paldanius, M., Kärkkäinen, T., Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, K., Juhlin, O.,  and Häkkilä, J.  Communication technology for human-dog interaction: exploration of dog owners' experiences and expectations.  In Proceedings of CHI. 2011, 2641-2650. 

Off Topic: Reflecting on some of my top YouTube videos (includes video clips)

I rarely check the stats of my YouTube videos.  Today when I checked the stats, I was surprised to see that I have a nice following, without really trying.

I started uploading video clips to YouTube in 2006, to share vacation videos with family and friends.  This was before YouTube was bought out by Google. Nearly everything that I've "produced" myself was not done in HD. There were strict guidelines about the size of video uploads during the earlier years of YouTube, so my videos look pretty low-tech. Most are lightly edited, if at all.

I used YouTube to store a few video clips I made when I was taking computer courses (HCI, Ubicomp, etc.). Again, most of my video clips were less-than polished.

One of my secrets is that I do know how to produce/shoot/edit video.  This summer, I plan to re-do my most popular videos, and add some new ones that I'm sure my YouTube viewers will enjoy.

I have lots of HD video of vacations that I'd love to share! For now, take a look at my mostly low-def, low-tech "showcase":

Cute Kitty Video: My daughter's pets. I uploaded this for fun, and now it has over 210,000 views!


Monet's Gardens (no-music version)


Monet's Gardens, With Music (I added music from iMovie to the video after a request from a viewer.)


The following video one was taken by my younger daughter as we were driving to NYC in July of 2001, just two months before the 9/11/2001 tragedy. I was trying to figure out my route, my daughter was trying to capture video of the Twin Towers in the distance, and in the middle of it all, a huge plane flew across the highway.


My first attempt at a "travel" video clip:


Beach at St. Lucia
I have much better footage of this beach.


Cute Kitty Video: "Very Happy"
This is the "cute kitty" grown up a bit. The music is something that came with my Yamaha Motif keyboard. The "Very Happy" part of the music is a sampling from a voicemail message left to me by my daughter. This sample, among others, found a home in some music I composed/created but never quite finished.


This video was taken in Cozumel, just after the region experienced a devastating hurricane. I loved this music! The video was shot with my low-tech point-and shoot camera, and not edited, as you can see by the last frame of the video...


Labadie, Haiti:  We were on a cruise and Labadie was one of the ports.  This was taken before the earthquake.



I'm experimenting with "monetizing" some of my most popular YouTube videos. If you happen to see an ad related to any of my video clips on YouTube that is objectionable, please let me know.