Gillian Smith

Computational Craft – Bridging HCI, Textile Arts, and Game Design

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Constant Contact, 1601 Trapelo Rd, Waltham, MA 02451

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Event Details

Traditional textile crafts, as both a design domain and artistic practice, provide a rich set of opportunities for games and HCI research–exploring generative computational models for textiles, as well as new forms of interactions and experiences that reach new audiences. This talk presents two projects that integrate computer science with textiles. The first is Threadsteading, a two-player strategy game designed and played on computerized consumer quilting and embroidery machines, which examines the interaction opportunities and design constraints that arise from treating textiles manufacturing as a form of HCI. The second is Hoopla, a generative design tool for hand-stitched cross-stitch samplers, which applies techniques from game-based procedural content generation in the domain of textiles. The two projects share common threads such as bridging digital and physical spaces, and disrupting gendered assumptions associated with both computation and craft. These themes that are now informing her emerging research in using computational craft for broadening public engagement in computing.

Speaker

Gillian Smith is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Interactive Media & Game Development at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her research interests are in computational creativity, game design, computer science education, and the intersection of traditional crafts and computation. Her interdisciplinary work merges technical research in AI and HCI with creative practice in textiles and games, with a view towards addressing social issues and broadening participation and perspectives on computing.

Sponsors

Schedule

• 6:30 – 7:00  Networking over pizza and beverages
• 7:00 – 8:30  Meeting
• 8:30 – 9:00  CHI Dessert and more networking

Hiroshi Ishii

Making Digital Tangible: The Battle Against the Pixel Empire

Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019

1 Rogers St, Cambridge, MA 02142

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Event Details

Today’s mainstream Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research primarily addresses functional concerns – the needs of users, practical applications, and usability evaluation. Tangible Bits and Radical Atoms are driven by vision and carried out with an artistic approach. While today’s technologies will become obsolete in one year, and today’s applications will be replaced in 10 years, true visions – we believe – can last longer than 100 years.

Tangible Bits seeks to realize seamless interfaces between humans, digital information, and the physical environment by giving physical form to digital information and computation, making bits directly manipulatable and perceptible both in the foreground and background of our consciousness (peripheral awareness). Our goal is to invent new design media for artistic expression as well as for scientific analysis, taking advantage of the richness of human senses and skills we develop throughout our lifetime interacting with the physical world, as well as the computational reflection enabled by real-time sensing and digital feedback.

Radical Atoms leaps beyond Tangible Bits by assuming a hypothetical generation of materials that can change form and properties dynamically, becoming as reconfigurable as pixels on a screen. Radical Atoms is the future material that can transform its shape, conform to constraints, and inform the users of their affordances. Radical Atoms is a vision for the future of Human- Material Interaction, in which all digital information has a physical manifestation, thus enabling us to interact directly with it.

I will present the trajectory of our vision-driven design research from Tangible Bits towards Radical Atoms, illustrated through a variety of interaction design projects that have been presented and exhibited in Media Arts, Design, and Science communities. These emphasize that the design for engaging and inspiring tangible interactions requires the rigor of both scientific and artistic review, encapsulated by my motto, “Be Artistic and Analytic. Be Poetic and Pragmatic.”

Speaker

Hiroshi Ishii is the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Laboratory. After joining the Media Lab in October 1995, he founded the Tangible Media Group to make digital tangible by giving physical form to digital information and computation. Here, he pursues his visions of Tangible Bits (1997) and Radical Atoms (2012) that will transcend the Painted Bits of GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces), the current dominant paradigm of HCI (Human-Computer Interaction).

Read more about Hiroshi Ishii at https://tangible.media.mit.edu/person/hiroshi-ishii/.

Sponsors

Schedule

• 6:30 – 7:00  Networking over pizza and beverages
• 7:00 – 8:30  Meeting
• 8:30 – 9:00  CHI Dessert and more networking

Elizabeth Rosenzweig

The UX of Body Worn Cameras for Police at Constant Contact

Tuesday, Oct 15, 2019

1601 Trapelo Rd, Waltham, MA 02451

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Event Details

Body worn cameras (BWC) impact police behavior in many ways, big and small. Police officers already carry approximately 9-12 different items on their body when on duty, so from a cognitive standpoint, they are already overloaded. The addition of a BWC adds to their cognitive load and if the camera has not integrated human factors best practices, the cameras might not get turned out. A year-long study was conducted in the lab and in the field, including interviews and ride-alongs. The outcome of the study provided design guidelines that improved the ease of use and effectiveness for one companies BWC.

Elizabeth Rosenzweig is a Principal Usability Consultant at the Bentley User Experience Center. Elizabeth has worked as a consultant and employee in several major corporations for over 25 years. Her experience includes design, innovation and development, ranging from website and, applications, to hardware products and technology development. Elizabeth has completed strategy, design and research projects for many major corporations as well as academic institutions. Elizabeth holds 4 patents in intelligent user interface design and is Adjunct Faculty in the Bentley University, Human Factors and Information Design Master’s degree program. 

Sponsors

Schedule

• 6:30 – 7:00  Networking over pizza and beverages
• 7:00 – 8:30  Meeting
• 8:30 – 9:00  CHI Dessert and more networking