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Design and analysis of social-interaction research

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Mirweis recently pointed me on this paper: THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL-INTERACTION RESEARCH by David A. Kenny taken from the Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 47: 59-86 (Volume publication date February 1996) .

Static models of interacting persons measured at the interval level are reviewed. A discussion of the fundamental sources of variance and key design decisions in social-interaction research is presented. Outlined are the basic designs for social-interaction research and their proper analysis. Multilevel modeling is likely to become the most common data analysis method. Critical issues unique to social-interaction research are examined, particularly the effect of the partner on the interaction actor. Finally, illustrations of analyses from four extended examples are presented.

Why do I blog this? I believe that social psychology methodologies like the one described in this paper cn be fruitfully applied to research about interaction analysis in HCI. This paper is also interesting in the sense that it deal with triad analysis which is the case of CatchBob!

When the group has three or more members, there are several important complications to consider beyond the scope of dyadic research. These complications are only sketched here. The first concerns whether the measurement is triadic. When persons i, j, and k are in a group, does person i separately interact with or rate both j and k, and is i's behavior measured for all of those interactions?

A second issue in triadic research is the meaning of the group effect. In dyadic research, the group effect is defined as the effect over and above individual-level effects of actor and partner. In triadic research, a group effect can be defined as an effect beyond both individual and dyadic effects. In triadic research, there are then three levels of effects: the person, the dyad, and the triad.

A third issue concerns design. Does person i interact with person j only when k is a member of the group, or does person i interact with j, k, m, and so on? The issue is whether all possible triads or just a subset is formed.

New blog by regine

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Everybody into arty/design stuff should add regine's new blog called no garlic please (of course I won't obey to this kind of statement since garlic make a good mix with pasta and vinegar). This also makes me reflect about her comment "i wouldn't like wmmna to loose its essence so i've just launched a new blog", I also had this kind of thoughts while writing P&V but I like the messy essence I put here ;)

Physical manipulation of a cellular automata

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J dash B just sent me the link about what Nwanua Elumeze do: craft items as digital manipulatives. For instance the Smart Tiles project seems to be great:

Smart Tiles are tiny, programmable pieces that can be assembled into an array to create complex and beautiful dynamical patterns. They are also interactive; for instance, one can program a tile so that it will change its color when gently tapped. The sorts of programs that one writes for the tiles are those typical of cellular automata, and can be written by children to explore systems concepts such as emergence and feedback. Smart tiles provide children with opportunities to design, create, play with, and explore decentralized systems.

For instance, you can manipulate the character with the cubes (it's actually a way to physically manipulate a cellular automata):

Why do I blog this? it's a curious and interesting way to embed an activity thanks to tangible interaction!

Sew, knit, and crochet conductive fibers

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Leah Buechley (a colleague of Enwanua) seems to be doing marvellous stuff with jean fabric/embroidered wires to introduce young girls to circuit theory as they sew, knit, and crochet conductive fibers, LEDs, switches and resistors unto denim and other fabrics. I liek this idea very much!

We recently (3/12/05) ran a workshop where young girls became familiar with the basics of electronic circuits as they sewed conductive thread, LEDs and switches unto denim. The picture shows tiny LEDs and a microchip sewn unto denim. The embroidered wires wrap around conductive fabric that take signals to and from electronic components. Power is provided via the snaps on the left, allowing the wearer to instantly snap on such electronic craft unto t-shirts, for instance. The movie depicts a two-cycle blinker from Conway's "Game of Life"

Location awarenes = affordance for social encounters

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Mogi-Mogi fans and location-based services designers should read “Seing” one another onscreen and the construction of social order in a mobile-based augmented public space: The uses of a geo-localized mobile game in Japan by Christian Licoppe and Yoriko Inada, Learning in the Mobile Age Conference (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, April 28–30, 2005). The article is about how location awareness of others in mobile game Mogi Mogi is important to create affordances for social encounters, excerpts I found relevant:

a case study about the uses in Japan of a geo-localised mobile game. The gameplay is that of a collection game where users, which are able to communicate between one another within a game-related text messaging system, must gather sets of related objects, that are both “virtual” and localized (that is accessible only within a given cell). The key feature is a virtual onscreen map that is continuously reset with each server request, and which features geo-localized players and virtual objects within a radius of approximately one kilometer.

This particular interface therefore allows players to “see” one another onscreen. We analyze the interactional onventions that develop through such mediated encounter and more specifically how “seing” one another in this way and the geographical closeness it entails become a pretext to start text-messaging exchanges, even between unknown players.

This case study of an advanced geo-localized game provides a first glimpse of what the experience of living in a mobile-based augmented urban public space might be like, and of the kind of social order that might characterize it.

The empirical work draws on a series of in-depth interviews with ten players who had played actively for over three months, and on the analysis of a large anonymous corpus of mobile messages exchanged between the players.

The 'onscreen encounter' in which the protagonists are able to perceive their respective icons on the screen map and to share that perception configures a form of encounter peculiar to context-aware cooperative devices like Mogi.

We have analysed how the participants reflexively oriented themselves towards publicizing their spatial position in order to develop specific formats of conversational openness. Through an analysis of written interactions between players, we have also shown how they oriented themselves in relation to potential vulnerability of their personal territories and ooperated to align or disalign incorporated 'situations' and screen 'situations'.

Why do I blog this? I am interested in the socio-cognitive functions of location-awareness, and its relation to mobile technology. In this case, we have an example of how location/proximity awareness as a social affordance to create specific encounters in the Mogi community.

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Augurscope: a portable mixed-reality interface for outdoor environments

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The Augurscope: a portable mixed-reality interface for outdoors.

The augurscope consists of a tripod-mounted display that can be wheeled to different locations and then rotated and tilted to view a virtual environment that is aligned with the physical background. Video from an onboard camera is embedded into this virtual environment. The augurscope utilises a GPS receiver, electronic compass, accelerometer and rotary encoder to acheive global position tracking at the same time as smooth local interaction. In August 2001 we [researchers] tested an initial application in which the public explored Nottingham's medieval castle from the site of its modern replacement. Analysis of use revealed issues with lighting, movement and relating virtual and physical viewpoints, and showed how environmental factors and physical form affected interaction.

Paper about it: Holger Schnadelbach, Boriana Kolvea, Martin Flintham, Mike Fraser, Paul Chandler, Malcolm Foster, Steve Benford, Chris Greenhalgh, Shahram Izadi and Tom Rodden. The Augurscope: A Mixed Reality Interface for Outdoors. In: ACM Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI'02), pages 9--16. ACM Press, April 2002.

There is also a second version:

Gartner's highlights about emerging technologies in 2005

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(via future now) Not really groundbreaking for people use to watch today's trends, Gartner released its key highlights about emerging technologies in 2005 (as part of their hype cycle program).

Gartner has identified three key technologies themes businesses should watch as well as highlighting some of the individual technologies in those areas. Technologies that will enable the development of Collaboration, Next Generation Architecture and Real World Web are highlighted as being particularly significant.

  • Collaboration: Podcasting, Wiki, Peer to Peer (P2P) voice over IP (VoIP), Desktop Search, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and Corporate Blogging.
  • Next Generation Architecture: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services-Enabled Business Models, Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), Business Process Platforms (BPP).
  • Real World Web: Location-aware applications, Radio Frequency Identification (Passive), Mesh Networks — Sensor.

As for location-aware applications, here is what they say:

Location-aware applications. These are mobile enterprise applications that exploit the geographical position of a mobile worker or an asset, mainly through satellite positioning technologies like Global Positioning System (GPS) or through location technologies in the cellular network and mobile devices. Real-world examples include fleet management applications with mapping navigation and routing functionalities, government inspections and integration with geographic information system applications. Mobile workers will use either a PDA or smartphone, connected via Bluetooth to an external GPS receiver, or stand-alone positioning wireless device.

Why do I blog this? As I said earlier, this is not so earthshaking if you're in the technological scouting loop. I would say that I am less interested in the content of this than in how it's presented to their customers. As matter of fact, it gives an idea about what is being said about tech innovation to CEOs and decision makers. Of course, some potential usage are not cited (the collaboration feature in location-aware application is missing for instance).

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Hypersonic sound: a way to get inside people's head

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Woody Norris has a way of getting inside your head... is an article in Popsci about a crazy technology:

Unlike traditional speakers, which scatter sound, Norris' device streams it in a precise, laser-like beam for up to 150 yards with almost no degradation in quality or volume. (...) How does it work? The piezoelectric transducer emits sound at frequencies above the human ear's 20,000-cycle threshold. Unlike low-frequency waves, the high-frequency signals don't spread out as they travel through air. Yet they do interact with the air to induce a related set of ultrasonic waves. These waves combine with the original waves, interfering to create an audible signal, focused into a beam. 

The applications are numerous, if not apparent: Thousands of soda machines in Tokyo will soon bombard passersby with the enticing sound of a Coke being poured, and several U.S. supermarkets will promote products to shoppers as they walk down corresponding aisles. Eventually HyperSonic Sound might enable a nightclub to play disco on one side of the dance floor and salsa on the other. Ambulances equipped with hypersonic sirens could clear the streets without waking the neighbors. Norris' company, American Technology, sells the devices for $600.

Why do I blog this? such kind of controller is incredible, however it's really disruptive and not really cool in terms of liberty: nothing would prevent us against spam!

Grape racing

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Thanks to Mauro, I am a lot into grape racing lately: here is how it works (taken from here:

What you need is a microwave oven, some grapes, a small measure of sunflower oil and some friends with which to compete.

The idea is thus. Firstly, if the microwave is of the type that has one of those silly rotating dish-like things, which rotates your food to make sure it gets cooked evenly, then take it out and throw it away. You won't need it for this game and, if you get addicted enough, you probably won't use your microwave for anything else, so you won't need that dish thing ever again. OK, next, lightly cover the floor of the oven with a small amount of sunflower oil. Just generally spread it about, to make a thin, lubricating layer, on which a grape may skate about. Try it with a practice grape to make sure you've got it right. Then, line up a number of grapes at one side of the oven, with one grape corresponding to each player. Important tip here--make sure that the end with the hole in it is pointing at the wall. This is really quite fundementally important. Next, lay bets--or whatever--on your grape, that it will win/lose/finish in a particular position or state/ whatever. Then, set the microwave to full power, and switch on. What happens is that the inside of the grape heats up, liquifies, and acts as a jet propellant to push the grape along the lubricated floor of the microwave as it shoots out the hole at the back. Thus, each grape travels with varying degrees of speed and/or success across the floor. The first to reach the other side of the oven is judged to be the winner, or, failing this, the one to travel the furthest. Some grapes don't make it even this far, and either shrivel up or explode messily on the starting line, but this just adds to the fun. Remember to switch off the microwave and remove the competitors before replacing them for the next round.

The game can be varied according to players and their individual tastes, like ``Strip Grape Races'' for example, or ``Stunt Grapes'' where the grape must perform a task like jumping over other grapes, etc. These, and other variations, should keep you and your friends amused for hours.

A video can be found here:

Video-Game interface to read books

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A smart project at the Reading Lab : Speeder Reader by Maribeth Back, Jonathan Cohen, Rich Gold used a video-game driving interface with dynamic text. It couples the notion of dynamic typography with the notion of the car as interface.

Speeder Reader gives you a gas pedal to control your rate of speed-reading and a steering wheel to navigate between streams of text. You can also jump forward or backwards in the text (by sentence, paragraph, or chapter).

In Western culture, the act of driving is very personally empowering (just like reading!). By combining the driving interface with dynamic text, we're offering a model of reading as a medium that gets you places.

Update Trevor Smith precised that the work was done by the RED group at PARC, not at the Reading Lab. What happened was all of the RED people left PARC and one of them, Maribeth Back, started the Reading Lab.

Personal Digital Libraries

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Great paper in D-Lib about personal digital libraries by Neil Beagrie.

People are capturing and storing an ever-increasing amount of digital information about or for themselves, including emails, documents, articles, portfolios of work, digital images, and audio and video recordings. Computer processing, storage, and software tools available to individuals are increasing in power, volume, and ease of use, year on year. Many issues arise from this more informal and increasingly empowered landscape of personal collection, dissemination, and digital memory, which will have major future impacts. This article provides a commentary on current research and emerging services in this area and discusses potential implications for individuals, libraries and their institutions.

Sony researchers create 'curious' Aibos

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Sony researchers create 'curious' Aibos:

Sony Corp. has succeeded in giving selected Aibo pet robots curiosity, researchers at Sony Computer Science Laboratory (SCSL) in Paris said last week. Their research won't lead to conscious robots soon, if ever, but it could help other fields such as child developmental psychology, they said during an open day in Tokyo. (...) what if a robot could be made inherently "curious?" And what if its curiosity was backed by awareness of the value of its learning? (..:)

They repeated the experiments hundreds of times with about a dozen Aibos, putting them in playpens with balls. In four or five hours, the mechanical dogs typically progressed from swivelling their legs and heads to wiggling, to being able to crawl. Then, each in their own way, they began to crawl and hit and follow the ball that had been placed in front of them, the researchers said. (...) Since the Aibos were not programmed to do any of these activities, such results suggest the Aibos have developed open-ended learning ability, Kaplan said.

To achieve this, the researchers equipped the Aibos with what they call an adaptive curiosity system or a "metabrain," an algorithm that is able to assess the robots' more conventional learning algorithms, they said.

In the experiments, the metabrain algorithm continually forced the learning algorithm to look for new and more challenging tasks and to give up on tasks that didn't seem to lead anywhere. The metabrains, in effect, gave the Aibos a sense of boredom as well as curiosity, helping them make choices to keep on learning, they said.

Inflatable Big Screen for the Ultimate Pool Party

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An interesting device (!) to host outdoor film in a big, high-quality way (as said by the website). It's an inflatable screen that works as an outdoor theater system.

you can make the most of your pool or patio by bringing up the lights on movies and video games. Originally developed for resorts and private golf clubs and now the new trend in outdoor living, it’s a complete, easy-to-use widescreen home entertainment system.

Maybe they should complete it with nice project I saw at IDI last week: CICCIO. Designers of this inflatable screen could allow users to interact with their TV by throwing stuff on it like on this CICCIO project: