I recently read an excerpt from J. Licklider in a book, The Design of Future Things by Donald A. Norman. The discussion in the excerpt discusses "Man-Computer Symbiosis" (a similar article can be found at here). Licklider describes the concept of symbiosis, in terms of user-interface design and human-computer interaction, as "a merger of two components, one human, one machine, where the mix is smooth and fruitful, the resulting collaboration exceeding what either is capable of alone." I found this to be a very interesting description of what the optimum goal for a user-interface should entail. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary definition for symbiosis is "the living together in more or less intimate association or close union of two dissimilar organisms (as in parasitism or commensalism); a cooperative relationship." The main concept here is that a user-interface should provide a "cooperative relationship" between the hardware/software interface and the human using such interface.

Today I received edits back from the chair of my graduate studies, Dr. James Mohler. His feedback, along with the edits, was:

I have gone through your document and I think it is in pretty good shape. I have edited and you can pick up the changes I am suggesting. Most edits are grammatical errors/small things to tighten up the document. You have done a good job analyzing and summarizing the qualitative data.

So... good news! I've completed making all of his recommended changes and submitted it back to all my committee members: Dr. James Mohler, Prof. Terry Burton and Prof. Rodney Vandeveer.

The main draft of my research paper is now complete. Here is an overview:

• Content Pages: 127 (including the Bibliography)
• Content Page Word Count: 41,894 words (including section titles, not including the table of content and list of figures)
• Total Pages: 154
  

One of my friends shared this video/article link with me. The pen looks easy to make - basically a stylus with an infrared light on the end. As for the software - it's very impressive. I look forward to experimenting with the other multi-touch apps I can come up with once I'm done with the app I'm creating for my grad research.


Source: http://www.istartedsomething.com/20100409/microsoft-research-manual-deskterity-synergy-pen-touch/

I just now saw a post on Johannes Luderschmidt's blog about a protocol developed by Konstanz University called Squidy which allows TUIO to run on the Microsoft Surface.

"Download the SurfaceToTuio component from the sourceforge project site (or via direct download).SurfaceToTuio is available as source code only (there is no executable). However, you can just upload the SurfaceToTuio folder to your Surface, doubleclick the Visual Studio project and compile it in the Surface’s Visual Studio right away."

I haven't tried it, but I find it very interesting. I'm curious how long it will be until Microsoft tries to stop it, since they want their beloved Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation to be used for MS Surface app development.

Source: http://johannesluderschmidt.de/lang/de/microsoft-surface-tuio-overlay/895/

SixSense Technology (link):

Presentation at Adobe MAX 2009 titled: Exploring New Uses for Rich Internet Applications in Education (link to Adobe TV video)
Co-presented by: Prof. Kellen Maicher, Graduate Student Travis Faas, and me

Received a recommendation from @BobRullo at AdobeMAX for applying the brainstorming multi-touch device app I want to create in a similar process to Six Sigma called Scrum. This is a development process usually used for software development. Wikipedia article on Scrum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development) Thanks Bob!

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I cannot accept,
and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those people I had
to kill today because they pissed me off.

And also, help me to be careful of the toes I step on
today as they may be connected to the that I may have
to kiss tomorrow.

Help me to always give 100 at work...
12% on Monday
23% on Tuesday
40% on Wednesday
20% on Thursday
5% on Fridays

And help me to remember...
When I'm having a really bad day,
and it seems that people are trying to piss me off,
that it takes 42 muscles to frown and
only 4 to extend my middle finger and tell them to bite me!

Amen

Background and Interests
For as long as I can remember, I have had an interest in art. Throughout elementary and middle school I attended several extracurricular art courses. During middle school I developed a curiosity for computers. This appeal led me to explore web design, which for me allowed me to combine my passion for art with my emerging passion technology. I enjoyed the creativity side of generating an interface design in addition to the problem solving side of debugging code. In 1999, I realized that people were paid to make web sites (and the pay was better than cutting grass for neighbors). That year I started my company, Cyber View (www.cyberviewsites.com), and quickly generated a small clientele list. I was able to turn my new found hobby into an aspiring entrepreneurial business. The following year in August of 2000, it was incorporated as an S-Corporation. Since that time I have transitioned from static web sites into dynamic, database-driven web development. Around 2001, I started experimenting with interactive multimedia. At the time I was utilizing Adobe Flash 5 to make small interactive applications for web pages. Today I describe my business as a web and interactive multimedia company. We are proud to state that we serve customers in three countries. In addition to providing custom web design, graphic design, web development, and multimedia development, the company also boasts two software-as-a-service systems which are offered to customers on a licensing basis. These two systems are: a content management system geared specifically for small businesses owners to easily maintain the content of their web sites (www.cyberstudiocms.com); and a residential life management system to centralize record keeping and tracking for the residential life staff of a college or university residence hall (www.myraportal.com).

During my undergraduate studies at Purdue University I studied Computer Graphics Technology, which provided me with the concepts and skills to know how to utilize graphic design tools more creatively as well as how to program more efficiently. Also within this time period, I developed a stronger fascination with interactive multimedia. As technologies evolved, I found an interest in rich internet applications, in other words, a web application that can be delivered in a variety of formats to send and receive data. I completed my Bachelor of Science from Purdue University in 2008 from Computer Graphics Technology.

Focus
For my graduate studies, I have decided to focus on research regarding the interaction between a human and an interactive multimedia application on a multi-touch device. More specifically, I'm interested in developing multi-user applications for multi-touch devices using the Adobe Flash Platform as the delivery method. Several individuals in both industry and in academia have developed multi-touch devices and others have begun designing applications for these devices. However, the pursuit will be to determine through the literature review what testing has been conducted about the interaction of multiple users with these devices.

There is a definite potential for value-added benefit to companies in the future through the use of multi-touch devices, especially for group collaboration. This potential has led my research focus into this general topic area. One initial challenge I have already encountered during my first year of graduate school is the acquisition of a multi-touch device. Professionally manufactured devices are very costly. In the current economic standing our country is in, these high costs are not within reach of most businesses. Other the other hand, many have sought the task of building their own devices through reading blog posts of other individuals who have attempted the same feat. Another challenge to those choosing to build a multi-touch device is the process of working through the quirks and system-bugs of constructing a multi-touch device from raw parts. While I would have preferred to not dive into the hardware side of multi-touch devices and focus solely of the interaction of the interface and the user, it has become evident that I will need to address both topics.

I am currently seeking a Master Degree. I have decided to select the route of a Directed Project. The decision came, in part, based upon the descriptions comparing a Master Thesis and a Directed Project in the Graduate Student Handbook. After running a company for the past ten years, I enjoy the combination of the business/industry focus with emerging technologies. Furthermore, I embrace challenges of finding methods to apply technological solutions towards solving business/industry issues. In the spectrum of research and development for a business setting, my preference lies towards the development side due to my hands-on personality. I thoroughly acknowledge and understand the value in the research component; although it is not one of my stronger skill sets I still strive to improve.

User experience is gained in the course of interacting with a technical device (Thuring and Mahlke, 2007). As the user interacts with a device for the first time, an amount of learning occurs on the part of the user to become acquainted to the interface of the device. If the user has interacted with the same device before or other similar devices, then recognition and recall from memory occurs to use past experiences to determine how to interact with this device, however learning will most likely still occur. Attributes of the user - such as knowledge or skills - as well as features of the system - such as functionality and interface design - affect the interaction and determine its major characteristics (Thuring and Mahlke, 2007).

Affective computing is described as techniques for enabling computers to recognize, model, understand, express, and respond to emotion effectively (McQuiggan, Lee, and Lester, 2006). Affect plays a leading role in a user's emotions during decision making, perception, and learning. Experts believe that since affect can greatly contribute to a user's performance of computational tasks, it should be taken into consideration when developing systems, such as for entertainment and/or educational purposes to enable the system to provide users with a more effective, interesting, and engaging experience (McQuiggan, Lee, and Lester, 2006).

In determining if an interface has a low learning curve for its target audience of users, accessibility and usability tests should be performed from the initial stages of development of the interactive multimedia system. The usability test should include a means to measure efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction (Frokjaer, Herzum, and Hornbaek, 2000). Analyzing these three values in addition to taking into consideration the context of use for the system, will provide developers insight into critical areas of importance to the user-experience for their specific system.

To summarize in simple terms, the user-experience is arguably the most important component to a system. A user should be able deem interface elements as recognizable to require a low learning curve for that particular interactive multimedia system.

References:

Frokjaer, E., Hertzum, M., & Hornbaek, K. (2000). Measuring Usability: Are Effectiveness, Efficiency and Satisfaction Really Correlated?. CHI Letters - SIGCHI 2000.

McQuiggan, S., Lee, S., & Lester, J. (2006). Predicting User Physiological Response for Interactive Environments: An Inductive Approach. American ociation for Artificial Intelligence.

Thuring, M. & Mahlke, S. (2007). Usability, aesthetics and emotions in human-technology interaction. International Journal of Psychology, 2007, 42 (4), 253-264.

A web-conferencing company called Presedia was acquired by Macromedia in 2003, which allowed Macromedia to gain their intellectual property of web-conferencing technologies and further develop online collaboration and communication solutions utilizing the capabilities of the then named Macromedia Flash under the product name Macromedia Breeze (Macromedia). Prior to the acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe Systems in 2006, the product formerly branded as Macromedia Breeze was renamed to Adobe Acrobat Connect. Today it is still based off the technology now named Adobe Flash, which allows it to be accessed by 98 of internet users who already have the Adobe Flash Player installed for their internet browsers (About Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional).

Described by Adobe as a high-impact web conferencing and eLearning solution, Acrobat Connect is providing companies and educators with an easy means to host remote meetings and educational cl es. To specifically focus on the eLearning capabilities of Acrobat Connect, Information Technology at Purdue describes it as a means to deliver lectures at a distance… Instructors who are out-of-town can deliver a cl online when needed... All Connect sessions can be recorded easily and instructors can make the links available to those students who weren’t able to attend the session... With the newest release, Connect also offers breakout rooms, the editing and downloading of recordings, and additional options for managing access and entry (About Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional). Dr. Bart Collins, distributed learning specialist and Director of the Instructional Development Center of Purdue University described Connect in a case study (when it was named Breeze) as the interface for Breeze is intuitive and doesn't require a lot of training… We found it's just as easy to get someone up and running in Breeze as it is to get them working in WebCT (Adobe Success Story: Purdue University).

The Connect sessions - such as a web conferencing, enterprise collaboration, training, and virtual cl rooms – users are given roles: host (session initiator), presenter (content contributor) and participant (session audience). The interface for Connect consists of pods where the layout of all the pods visible during a Connect session can be customized by the host. The pods that are available to be activated are: Camera and Voice to share a web camera and audio from a computer microphone, Attendee List to view and manage all the individuals attending the session, Chat to allow for text chatting, Notes / Discussion Notes to keep track of topics and ideas shared, Share to share your computer screen and/or specific documents open on your computer, Whiteboards to allow for brainstorming with visuals, Poll to take a quick survey of your audience, File Share to provide documents to the attendees, and Web Links to provide a list of internet resources.

There are several pros of the current version of Adobe Connect. The primary pro is its ease of use to become acquainted to the Flash-based system since such a large market share already has the Adobe Flash Player. Another is its low learning curve for not only participants but also hosts. Adobe recently integrated the capabilities of Adobe Connect into www.acrobat.com as a free software-as-a-service (called Adobe ConnectNow, limited up to 3 participants at a time), into Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDF files, as well as into the latest line of its core products, the Adobe Creative Suite 4.

On the cons side of the spectrum, the cost isn’t cheap to purchase neither the Adobe Acrobat Connect Standard nor the Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. With the Professional version companies are offered three purchase options: a software license to install within the company’s firewall, an annual subscription, and a monthly / pay-per use option. Only a phone number is offered to call for pricing on the software license and annual subscription options. As for the monthly / pay-per-use, up to 5 participants at one time is $375 per month, up to 10 users is $750 per month, and finally the pay-per-use is $0.32 per minute per user. With the Standard version you can have up to 15 participants at during one session which is targeted for small companies at a price tag of $39.95 per month or $395.00 per year.

Adobe recognizes the model for the Web 2.0 methodology of empowering users to contribute content. They are providing tools to make it easier than ever before to enable organizations, companies and educators to provide solutions for e-learning, rapid training, virtual cl rooms, web conferencing, and enterprise collaboration. Furthermore they are integrating these tools into their core products to promote communication during design and development work-flow processes.

URL Examples:

• Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro - Official Site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/
• Adobe Acrobat Connect Standard - Official Site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnect/
• ITaP Go Meeting with Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro: http://gomeet.itap.purdue.edu/
• Adobe ConnectNOW: http://www.acrobat.com/

References:

1. About Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional (2008) Purdue University, Information Technology at Purdue. Retrieved on February 21 2009 from http://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/gomeet/index.cfm
2. Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro (n.d.) Adobe Systems. Retrieved on February 20 2009 from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/?promoid=BPDEA
3. Adobe Success Story: Purdue University (n.d.) Adobe Systems. Retrieved on February 20 2009 from http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm?event=casestudydetail&casestudyid=77328&loc=en_us
4. Macromedia (n.d.) Wikipedia. Retrieved on February 22 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macromedia

;

Serious gaming appears to have emerged from the genre of educational gaming. However, traditionally educational games were focused more on teaching, such as the elementary school favorite “Number Munchers,” however the game aims “for ‘transmitting’ knowledge from the game to the player.” With serious games, immersing the player into an environment allows the player to learn at their own pace, therefore “creating meaningful experiences and activities for players” (Stapleton, 2004, pg2). Through these environments simulations for training purposes can be provided to players to encounter real-world situations that were previously difficult to offer trainees. Creating these scenarios in the real-world would be very costly. Providing an instructor-led cl or a training video doesn’t provide hands-on experience. “A generation ago, using a video to deliver training invited skepticism, but today it is standard practice. A similar history could emerge with game technology” (Laff, 2007, pg 3 & 6). Now this new type of games places the control of the journey of learning directly into the player through the “learner-centered approach” compared to the traditional “teacher-centered approach” where the education determines the speed and content for the students to learn (Stapleton, 2004, pg2). However, serious games are not meant to replace entirely the traditional means but rather as supplemental to provide more hands on learning through immersive simulations.

Serious games seem to have brought the entertaining game industry into the realm of the educational game industry as corporations, foundations, government, military, health care, and other entities are finding a value in serious games. At the 2009 Game Developers Conference to be held in San Francisco, CA there will be a Serious Games Summit. Through the summit the goal is to provide “a forum for game developers and industry professionals to examine the future course of serious games development in areas such as education, government, health, military, science, corporate training, first responders, and social change” (Serious Games Summit, 2009). Events such as this that promote networking and collaboration will continue to propel not only the use of serious games, among other things, the quality and technology behind serious games. Closer to home as announced on the Serious Games Source web site in a recent January 26th article, Purdue University is set to open on February 12^th 2009 the Purdue Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments. The new center will be located in Beering Hall will push to “establish a foundation for securing funding and conducting research at Purdue on the use of serious games and virtual environments in education.”

References:

• Cowan, D. (2009). Purdue University Announces Opening of Serious Games Center. Serious Games Source. Retrieved January 31, 2009 from http://www.seriousgamessource.com/item.php?story=22027
• Laff, M. (2007). Serious Gaming: The Trainer’s New Best Friend. Wilson Web.
• Serious Games Initiative. (2009). About the Serious Games Initiative. Retrieved January 31, 2009 from http://www.seriousgames.org/
• Serious Games Summit. (2009). Game Developers. Retrieved January 31, 2009 from http://www.gdconf.com/conference/sgs.html
• Stapleton, A. (2004). Serious Games: Serious Opportunities. Australian Game Developers’ Conference, Academic Summit.

Quite simply put by Webster Dictionary multimedia is something using, involving or encomp ing several media; a technique (as the combining of sound, video, and text) for expressing ideas (as in communications, entertainment, or art) in which several media are employed; something (as software) using or facilitating such a technique.

Prior to the term multimedia being used, another term, hypermedia was coined by Ted Nelson to describe the combination of text, graphics, video and sound (W3C). HyperText was used to describe text with links to other texts was also coined by Nelson back in 1965. Both terms have fallen out of style, however hypertext is still the foundation of the web - one of its core features (Tetlaw).

Multimedia has been a term used now for quite some time. As technologies have evolved its definition has withstood time by still accurately describing the use of multiple media in a compilation. To plan, create, and produce multimedia content can be a time consuming process for designers and developers. Although if a multimedia application is built in a dynamic way to allow for content to be easily updated and modified when needed, it may increase time to initially create the multimedia solution but save time in the long term regarding maintaining the solution.

Now as companies, such as Adobe, push forward to make advances with emerging technologies new terms are being coined. One such term is rich internet applications which originally was used to highlight the capabilities of Flash to deliver not just multimedia content but also GUI-style application experiences. ; Adobe Systems, who merged with Macromedia in 2002, now uses the term to describe technologies that provide content to users through interactive solutions available in multiple formats, such as web, desktop and mobile devices. Now as the industry is emphasizing creating engaging and interactive experiences for users to tell a story or have a discernable concept the term multimedia will still play a role (Adobe Systems, 2008a).

• Adobe Systems (2008 a). Interactive Experiences: What is an interactive experience?. Adobe Developer Connection. Retrieved January 20, 2009 from http://www.adobe.com/devnet/projects/interactive/?promoid=DJHDF
• Adobe Systems (2008 b). Applications have evolved (PDF Document, Presentation side excerpt). Rich Internet Applications.
• Merriam-Webster (2009). Multimedia. Retrieved January 20, 2009 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/multimedia
• Tetlaw, A. (2009). Crimes Against Hypertext. SitePoint. Retrieved January 20, 2009 from http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/01/13/crimes-against-hypertext/
• W3C (n.d.) What is Hypertext?. Retrieved January 20, 2009 from http://www.w3.org/WhatIs.html

cgCentral: An AIR Application for ;Managing Course Information and Simulation Data

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Dissemination from CGT 411/450 to the Computer Graphics Technology student population of information regarding COGENT stock prices, individual COGENT accounts and press releases.

RESEARCH QUESTION
Are rich internet applications such as CGCentral more usable than traditional browser-based tools for disseminating information from a senior-level course to an entire department student body?

ABSTRACT
The senior design capstone course in the Department of Computer Graphics Technology at Purdue University provides an opportunity to engage students using COGENT, a fictitious currency used to evaluate performance. A simulation of a stock market for the senior design groups allows for undercl men to receive, exchange and invest COGENT dollars during their time as a Computer Graphics Technology student. Through this interaction undergraduates can accumulate COGENT in an effort to enhance their final grade for the course. Building on previous research in this area, this project addresses which medium is perceived by students to be the most effective to disseminate information: 1) desktop-based rich Internet applications or 2) dynamic web sites and RSS feeds.

Facebook, MySpace, and Blackboard – Analyzing the interfaces as educational tools?

Two out of the three interfaces we have been asked to review are branded as social networking sites. The third is branded as an educational course management system with limited social networking capabilities. ; To examine each of these systems as a potential educational tool to aide communication in a college course, an analysis of the interface in which students and professors will interact is in order.

When you first arrive at the myspace.com web site, animated banner ads immediately bombard you. ; Throughout the MySpace web site the design layout is scattered with ads. On its web pages, not including profile pages of its members, there is a lack of a consistent layout from page to page. For example, from the homepage to the MySpace Music page. Some users may experience challenges of determining how to create an account for membership to MySpace.

Drastically contrasted from the MySpace homepage, the facebook.com homepage is brief and to the point. No flashing banner ads are popping up in your face. The site informs visitors of its purpose, potential uses, login details, and information to join. For a user new to Facebook, they would be able to create an account with great ease from the homepage. Once logged into the site, users will notice that Facebook is currently transitioning their design layout. The old version incorporated a consistent layout throughout the site, however new version Facebook has debuted lacks a consistent page layout. Facebook’s advertising model has two different means of advertising: banner ads and fliers. The animated banner ads you will find throughout Facebook are not overbearing to the user and there are typically less than two per page.

Out of the three, creating an account for Blackboard is the easiest – Purdue University creates it for you. The Career Account username and p word for all Purdue students is their access to Blackboard. Initially logging into Blackboard, users might experience challenges if their computer doesn’t have the latest Java plug-in for their internet browser. Blackboard will prompt them to download any updates they need to utilize the system. Upon accessing the system, users will not encounter any advertisements since the system was purchased by Purdue. The interface is very structured with a similar page layout throughout the system. Unlike Facebook and MySpace, using the internet browser’s back button doesn’t always take the user back to the previous page.

In Designing Interfaces author Jennifer Tidwell (2006) discusses the openness of an interface can have a great effect on how your users are able to accomplish the intended goal(s) for using the system. For this analysis the goal for users will be to exchange information and communications regarding a college course. With MySpace the system is very open. This gives users the complete ability to change the layout, color scheme, and graphics of the interface. For a novice user, they can feel paralyzed, not knowing what to do next, unprepared (Tidwell, 2006). The ability to customize the aesthesis of a MySpace profile page will not improve the communication features of the site. ;I feel Tidwell would agree that Blackboard would be considered an extremely closed system. Tidwell describes closed systems as users feel trapped and unsatisfied, which seems to describe Blackboard well. However, the main purpose of Blackboard is for education. It provides features that the other two systems lack, such as file sharing, grade reporting and progress reports. Facebook is a middle ground between the openness of MySpace and the closedness of Blackboard. While it doesn’t offer the grading features Blackboard has, it does have an easier means to navigate the site. Each of the three options provides similar capabilities, including discussion boards, instant chatting, who's online status indicators, and internal messaging.

I’ve completely ruled out MySpace due to the issues already discussed, in addition to the connotation the site has from the general public wouldn't lend itself well as an educational tool. Facebook obviously has a social connotation to it due to it starting off initially introduced to college students; therefore, many students are very familiar with how it works. Students repetitively use the site throughout the day to check the latest news about their friends. Blackboard’s communication tools don’t seem to be utilized by students, due to the educational/institutional connotation of the system. As educational tools, I believe the best choices based upon the experience users will receive from the system interfaces will be a toss-up between Facebook and Blackboard.

Sources:
Tidwell, ; J. (2006). Users’ Motivation to Learn. Designing Interfaces, ; 8-19.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
The current information dissemination mechanisms used in CGT 411/450 are perceived inefficient because of the lack of a centralized source of knowledge regarding the tracking of tasks related to the CGT 411/450 course simulation, in turn detracting from the true goal of the course, the scholarly research endeavor.

RESEARCH QUESTION
Are dedicated standalone rich internet applications such as CGCentral more usable than traditional browser-based tools for disseminating CGT 411/450 information?

ABSTRACT
CGT 411 is a senior capstone course in which students simulate the complexities of real-world corporations and business environments related to applied computer graphics . Part of this simulation includes the student and faculty functions of generating, tracking, and maintaining large amounts of mock data including stock information, press releases, corporate and individual finances. Typically, these functions have been achieved through a variety of mechanisms including web sites, RSS feeds, forums, and conferencing applications. Due to size and complexity of information required for the function of this simulation, the use of the previously mentioned applications have proven to be inefficient and inadequate. The authors propose the creation of a Rich Internet Application using the Adobe AIR technology that will consolidate the functions of the multiple simulation mechanisms into a single, unified application. The RIA will be subjected to usability and essment testing to ensure that an effective application is built that achieves the goals of the project.