Tactons

Bringing haptic and audio together.

Tactons paper from the University of Glasgow
New Parameters for Tacton Design
Eve Hoggan and Stephen Brewster. pdf

Shoogle: interface for sensing data

Shoogle: "Shoogle is a novel, intuitive interface for sensing data within a mobile device, such as presence and properties of text messages or remaining resources. It is based around active exploration: devices are shaken, revealing the contents rattling around 'inside'."

Shoogle: Excitatory Multimodal Interaction
on Mobile Devices. pdf

Devices as Interactive Physical Containers:
The Shoogle System. pdf

Movie showing experiment here

Electric cars and the problem of infrasturcture

A very interesting blog about electric cars and the problems behind the power structure that would support the general use of power.
by Technical Editor Paul Rako.
We’ve got electric cars but no infrastructure to charge them

An interesting fact about electric cars came up yesterday in Bill Schweber’s coffee talk about the smart grid. There was a fellow in the audience there who worked at Southern California Edison. He pointed out that if a bunch of neighbors in a cul-de-sac all bought electric cars, the power line transformer on the pole would blow up at night from the excessive load of charging all those cars. He reminded us we have a 50-year-old infrastructure here in the USA. I have a friend in the semiconductor industry who has seen newsgroup postings that point out a related problem. Those power pole transformers also need to cool off at night when they are under no load. With even a few electric cars charging off the transformer, it will stay nice and warm overnight, and then on a hot summer day, the transformer will blow up due to overheating.

Finally I remind you this is all related to the crappy efficiency of distributing power. I heard Samuel J. Palmisano, The CEO of IBM give a speech bragging about how IBM can help power companies improve the 67% efficiency of the distribution of power. He was not talking about the thermal and mechanical inefficiencies of generating the power, he was just talking about the distribution losses to your wall outlet.

So this demonstrates that in all political battles, and electric cars are a social and political battle, not a technical one, you have to look at the source of information. Regarding pure-electric cars, the sources are: fans of electric cars, who are really people who hate oil companies and capitalism in general. Another source is scientists, not engineers. Scientists do not care about the true costs of things, they just want to publish and get grants. Then there are the politicians, always willing to say anything to get votes. Finally there are desperate car companies like GM, who pass off a series hybrid, the Volt as an electric car, when it is really a hybrid. GM recently went on record saying the Volt will get 50 mpg in hybrid mode. If that is the case, I will be the first to buy one, rip out the 300 pounds of batteries so I can get 60 mpg and then I won’t even have to remember to charge it up every night,. Maybe the final group of people pushing electric cars is the “entrepreneurs” just trying to get rich quick making promises that they can’t keep.

On the other side, one competent engineer from the power company reminding us that if everybody uses electric cars we will have to rewire every pole and transmission tower to handle the load, even if all the load is off-peak.

This makes me think the real hope for fully electric cars would be using local solar power on your roof to charge it up, but then you have to store the power somewhere since the solar will tend to make the power when you have the car at work. OK, so I guess the only proactive way is to have solar charging stations at work where you park the car. Geez, this it getting kludgy. One thing I find amazing is people that claim that electric cars will help greenhouse gasses, and that is just nonsense since most electric power is made with coal and natural gas. And then lets remember that you can’t move all these kilowatts of power around with perfect efficiency. I am going to make some rough guesses on the overall efficiency of an electric vehicle:

95% Turning coal and gas to heat.
89% Heat to electricity
67% Distribution losses
80% Charging losses
97% Battery losses, especially Li-ion
75% Drive losses
When you run those efficiencies sequentially, you get 33% efficiency from fossil fuels to motive power. That is still way better than the 7 to 10% from an internal combustion engine operating over an average drive cycle, but it is far from the 100% that electric car acolytes imply. Now you can see why auto companies like hybrids. They allow the internal combustion engine to operate in a 30 or even 40% efficient regime and then let the electric system run over entire operating range of the drive cycle. This eliminates the first four inefficiencies I cited, and maybe even the battery losses, since the battery is not storing charge over long periods.

So a pure electric vehicle looks great on paper, but that is marketing paper or acolyte paper or politicians’ paper. When you run the numbers on engineer’s paper, things are less rosy. I say we keep up the research but remember, China owns most of the exotic metal like neodymium we need for the motor magnets and a good chunk of the lithium we need for the batteries. Our government is going around fighting wars like it is 1943 and the Panzer divisions are ruining out of oil. It is really these noble metals and rare earths that are the commodities that are worth fighting over. Typically, politicians and Generals always fight the last war.

Meanwhile, just like radio spectrum should be used for mobile applications, liquid fuels are best suited to cars for now. That liquid might be alcohol or some synthetic brew, but don’t think fully electric vehicles are a practical alternative for the whole country' http://www.edn.com/blog/1700000170/post/1840054184.html?rid=#reg_visitor_id_10#&nid=3351.
original link

IRB Training

Consent form form Project testing.





Certificate of IRB training for the ECS598 Class.

Book: Self Theories: their role in motivational, personality and development

Great book from author Carol Dweck.

Different keyboard input HCI

Link to multiple links for keyboard interfaces

Technology barriers and Solutions


Wear Clam: One hand wrist wearable keyboard


Twiddler: One hand keyboard interface








Senseboard

Data from project using Many eyes tool

This link is the graphic showing the MPG vs cost and CO2 of two different vehicles in a one year range. Very nice tool and allowed me to gather data from different sources and present the data in a more appealing manner.


Many eyes link





Cost of fuel economy

Many eyes tool

Experimenting with data from HCI class project. Very good tool for visualization of data in multiple unique ways. Give it a try!!
Check my uploaded data here.

Beliefs Influence Green Behavior: Lessons from Guatemala

Key learning for green marketers:

Shared values predict behavior. Atran et. al. demonstrated that beliefs predict human impact on plants (deforestation) among the three groups studied. Each group varied considerably in its propensity to practice sustainable forestry: simply put, the Itza sustained their land, the Q’eqchi did not and the Ladinos were somewhere in the middle. Atran et. al. demonstrated that beliefs (e.g., ecological centrality of plants, value of plants for cash, wood or shelter, etc.) were highly correlated with human impact.

Shared values create a contextual framework for decision making. People with shared values and beliefs tend to have similar contextual frameworks (mental models) that result in similar decisions being made – even when confronted with new or unfamiliar stimuli. Environmental decision-making is no different.

Religion motivates behaviors, and may even override economic self-interests. The Itza’ are a religious people and the belief in forest spirits is strong, especially among the men. Such beliefs are powerful motivating factors which dictate behaviors (which animals and plants to protect, etc.) in order to placate spirits or win their favor. While a delicate subject for marketers, religion can be a powerful motivating force for certain target segments.

Education is critical to shaping/evolving beliefs. People do not appreciate or value what they do not understand. In this study, for example, the Ladinos were learning sustainable practices from the Itza’s, which resulted in measurable improvements in forest sustainability over time.

Influencers matter. Trusted expert do shape beliefs and influence behavior. Yet, people have to be receptive to the message. Atran et al, found that the more overlap between expert and social networks, the greater the influence exerted (in this case knowledge transferred regarding sustainable practices).

http://marketinggreen.wordpress.com/2006/07/25/beliefs-influence-green-behavior-lessons-from-guatemala/

http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/satran/files/the_cultural_mind.pdf#search="The Cultural Minds atran"

Green Consumer Behavior– Part I: Information Paradox | Futurelab – An international marketing strategy consultancy

Green Consumer Behavior Part I: Information paradox

by: David Wigder

Understanding consumer behavior is critical for any marketer, and is especially important in regard to environmental products and services.

More than one hundred years of consumption theory – across a wide range of academic disciplines including economics, psychology and sociology - makes it clear that there are many different motivations and influences that drive consumer behavior. Professor Tim Jackson at the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey (Guildford, UK) provides a comprehensive summary of this history in his Motivating Sustainable Consumption, a report to the Sustainable Development Research Network, a Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (UK)-funded initiative designed to link research and policymaking in the area of sustainable development.

Green Consumer Behavior– Part I: Information Paradox | Futurelab – An international marketing strategy consultancy

Of importance in this repor is this comment quoted here:

"One counter-intuitive observation that Jackson made is that of the Information Paradox: People want to “feel in control of their lives and resist feelings of helplessness.” More information, however, may not empower them. In fact, it may have “precisely the opposite effect.” "

Papero The robot nanny from NEC

Papero is an amazing Japanese robot that can take care of your kids, it is mainly used as a research tool for HCI.

Check this video and some of its capabilities.
mms://ucan.wmt.biglobe.ne.jp/ucan_wf/robo/high/paperochild_eng.wmv

It's capabilities video link:
mms://ucan.wmt.biglobe.ne.jp/ucan_wf/robo/high/papero04kino_eng.wmv

General web page for videos and description of Papero.
http://www.nec.co.jp/products/robot/en/video/index.html

Class blog

Getting started with blogging as a Portfolio tool

I never had a online portfolio before, so it is an interesting experience to apply myself and write down my thoughts as different topics cross my mind or everyday observations occur. We'll see how this evolves in time, hopefully it will become a more natural task and ideas will flow freely.

Networks and existing video needs as bandwidth needs increased

While planning the goals for this year at work, it cross my mind the quantity of applications that can be created if a) video analytics required low resolution for its algorithms to work or HD video would be easy to remotely stream using internet ( I mean 1080p resolution) and b) if there was a smarter way to define or detect the video buffer or frame where the information to analyze resides. The overall direction of technology shows that it is a matter of time for this to become a reality and as a trend analytics are starting to move to the client side, within the camera guts, next to the encoding system.


Change of human values and interaction as technology evolves

This previous week I tried to pay close attention to people and their computer interactions. First, it is amazing the levels computers permeate everyday actions. Allow me to explain myself. Today my gas tank was low, at least that is what my vehicle showed me, so I decided to head towards the gas station and after pulling in front of the pump I used my credit card to pay for the transaction, filled the tank and headed to work. After reflecting a little about this, I realized my interaction with nearly 100 little computers. My vehicle has at least 50 small microcontrollers that monitor, control and provide multiple UI for personal comfort, to mention a few (tire pressure, gas, airbags, stereo, passenger's seat, antilock brakes, steering wheel, speed sensors, etc) the pump also has multiple computers, at least for credit card network transactions, the database computer for my credit card data, the fuel measurement system, the computer of the pump, the internal cash register in case I use cash. If I take a closer look, my watch, the soda machine, the traffic light, my cell phone, they are everywhere.

After realizing how this invisible invasion of computers makes my life so easy, I started to wonder about the underlying effects this has on people. This issue is better reflected in the paper “reflecting human values in the digital age” and “fogies at 20's”. All this was become clearer when I observed a couple next to the table my friends and I sat while lunch. The interesting thing was that human interaction was gone and each one was one hundred percent immerse in a different computer, one was using his net-book and the other was reading her nook. This made me wonder if this phenomenon was caused by technology (maybe it is easier to interact with a computer) or our culture drives us to always feel in a rush to keep up with something and we can share “it” better after our devices keep an eye for us and just interrupt us when necessary.

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Problems as opportunities

Mostly new developments are been used in the area of technology been along the mentality of faster and less power. So far, it seems that HCI needs to catch up and in order for this to happen our understanding of Human interaction with computer needs to be better understood.

However, more applications (music instruments, gadgets, gesture detection) and lack of a framework to understand the interactions leads to gadgets that are cool but do not survive in time.
It seems however that no understanding of the application or lack of human motive is further develop (which means it is a verge of development and a cool area to work on).

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Writing about my thoughts has never been easy, I always found reason why I could not write or when I would try it would be hard to describe, it was better to draw or to paraphrase it in another way. I am eager to see what results from this e-diary.

Stanford lectures

Personally there were two things that I felt were very applicable to myself. One is to take the chance to be fabulous and talk to people, I guess that I tend to get entangled in my own thoughts that even when walking do not pay much attention around me. By taking the chance to be fabulous I force myself to be aware, to express what I think and to think more about what is going on around me, this also allows me to talk to other people more and discuss about the same topic from a different perspective. All that has been fascinating and an eye opener about who you can meet if you are in the right place.
The other topic from this talk I felt was appealing was the envelope with five dollars, this part made me think about how limited we can be sometimes if we do not look at things from a different perspective. There can be multiple solutions to the same problem and sometimes we also develop a deaf ear because we think we heard everything before. This seems to be the case because of been in the industry for long, it shapes the way I think. Since I started this class, I tend to think lees of cost or technology available and more about the new concepts and if it would be acceptable or change the way we perform certain tasks. It creates a new level of thinking, more freedom I guess.
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I received today the book of the Universal Traveler. It is a very interesting book, it provides different sets of tools for problem solving and creative thinking, it will be very useful in creative thinking which is an area I want to develop further before I apply any problem solving skills.
Hopefully not like Susumu Yokota’s song titles

Some very cool TED talks


http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=as-luck-would-have-it

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Computers helping us to become aware of our behaviors and dealing with other people’s behaviors
Links to explore:

http://ict.usc.edu/projects/elect_bilat1/
http://ict.usc.edu/projects/full_spectrum_command/

inspiring
http://www.ted.com/talks/evelyn_glennie_shows_how_to_listen.html

Group Project
Behaviors and what impact they can have in our society and environment
Smart house and power consumption awareness
Use for monitoring behavior today, this can have a great impact. First step is to realize that we as a group or global culture have a sometimes terrible effect in nature, and natural or human resources.
Use this data to show it:

http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_jordan_pictures_some_shocking_stats.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html

Energy logistics
http://www.gapminder.org/videos/gapcasts/gapcast-10-energy/

Brink and Lard Games

Larp games: Live action role play game. Allows real life experiences to be portrayed as games. This is the realm of role play games such as:
Brink Games:

Mission for Project

COMPOSTING

Why Compost?

http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/composting/questions.htm

Composting makes sense. Instead of sending organic matter to a landfill, it can be transformed into a useful additive which can even be sold. See Environmental Benefits.

What Can Compost Be Used For?

    * Farmers use compost for enhancing crops and for sod farms.

    * Landscapers use compost as a soil amendment and for decorative purposes at properties, golf courses, and athletic fields.

    * Landfill operators use compost to cover landfills and carry out reclamation projects.

    * Nurseries use compost for enhancing plant and forest seedling crops in reforestation projects and to prevent certain plant diseases such as root rot.

    * Public agencies use compost for landscaping highway median strips, parks, recreational areas, and other public property and remediating contaminated or eroded sites.

    * Homeowners use mature compost to enrich gardens, improve the soil around trees and shrubs, use as soil additive for house plants and planter boxes and as a protective mulch for trees and shrubs.

How Do I Compost?

Composting is easy. Common materials like chicken wire, bricks, and buckets are all it takes to begin composting, which can be done either indoors or outdoors. Maintenance is not difficult either: regular mixing or turning and a little water can ensure success. Learn how to create your own compost pile.

Compost:

Why Not Burn Leaves and Other Yard Wastes?

Burning leaves and other yard wastes pollutes the air and can lead to uncontrolled fires. Leaf smoke can make breathing difficult for people who suffer from asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or allergies. A number of states currently ban leaf burning, and some communities either ban leaf burning or restrict when and where it can take place. For more information, visit EPA's Backyard Burning site.

CAR POLUTION

http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/page.cfm?tagID=263

Car pollution adds up and sticks around

We might not picture creating pounds of global warming pollution when we drive, but the exhaust coming out of our car has actual weight—an average household with two medium-sized sedans emits more than 20,000 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year. That's 10 tons of pollution adding to the greenhouse effect. SUVs tend to emit more global warming pollution than smaller cars—as much as 40 percent more exhaust.

Here's how it adds up: A gallon of gasoline weighs just over 6 pounds. When burned, the carbon in it combines with oxygen to produce about 19 pounds of CO2. Adding in the energy that went into making and distributing the fuel, the total global warming pollution is about 25 pounds of CO2 per gallon. An average car that gets 21 mpg and is driven about 30 miles a day uses 1.4 gallons daily and emits 35.7 pounds of CO2 every day. That's a lot of pounds when multiplied by the millions of cars across the country.

Heat-trapping pollution, like that from cars and trucks, can stay in the atmosphere for several decades to about a century. For instance, some emissions from Ford's 1912 Model Ts are still up in the atmosphere today, thickening the blanket of greenhouse gases that are heating up the planet.

Population growth has helped put more cars on the road, and a strong economy has led to more cars per driver. These trends combined with poor gas mileage mean we're facing a dangerous situation.

The Annual Cost of Lower Fuel Efficiency

Average gas mileage      Average fuel used (based on 12,000 miles per year)       

Approximate greenhouse gas pollution                 Approximate Cost (based on $2.30/gallon)

50 mpg                 240 gallons          2.7 tons/year     $552

40 mpg                 300 gallons          3.4 tons/year     $690

30 mpg                 400 gallons          4.5 tons/year     $920

25 mpg                 480 gallons          5.4 tons/year     $1,104

20 mpg                 600 gallons          6.8 tons/year     $1,380

15 mpg                 800 gallons          9 tons/year         $1,840

10 mpg                 1,200 gallons      13.6 tons/year   $2,760

TIP: Did you know that idling for more than ten seconds uses more gas and creates more pollution than simply restarting your engine? If you are stopping for more than ten seconds—except in traffic—turn off your engine.

      Travel light and pack smart. Extra weight decreases fuel economy. Hauling an extra 100 pounds in your vehicle reduces fuel economy by up to 2 percent. Place luggage inside rather than on the roof or trunk to  minimize drag and increase mileage.

      Drive less aggressively. Aggressive driving—rapid acceleration and braking—can lower gas mileage by as much as 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent in town. Aggressive drivers are using an extra 125 gallons of gas and spending over $250 more than average drivers each year.

      Slow down. In highway travel, exceeding the speed limit by a mere 5 mph results in an average fuel economy loss of 6 percent.

      Know when to use the air. Air conditioning can decrease your fuel efficiency by as much as 12 percent in stop-and-go traffic, so consider cracking the windows. But at high speeds, driving with the windows open can decrease the overall efficiency of the vehicle.

      Don't idle. If you are stopping for more than ten seconds—except in traffic—turn off your engine.  Idling for more than ten seconds uses more gas and creates more global warming pollution than simply restarting your engine.

Maintain your car

Keep your vehicle operating in peak performance by following these recommendations.

      Keep your engine tuned properly. Checking spark plugs, oxygen sensors, air filters, hoses and belts are a few examples of maintenance that can save a vehicle owner up to 165 gallons of gas per year, resulting in potential savings of $380.

      Check the tires. Have your wheels aligned and keep your tires properly inflated. Low tire pressure wastes over two million gallons of gasoline in the United States—every day. For every pound of pressure below recommended levels, fuel economy drops 1 percent. Keeping your tires properly inflated means saving about a tank of gas a year.

Drive less

No matter how smart you drive, leaving the car parked always saves more gas and pollution.

      Combine trips. Consider running all your errands in the same area at once, rather than making separate trips. Cutting a 20 mile trip out of your schedule each week can reduce your global warming pollution by more than 1,200 pounds a year and save you over $100 in gas expenses.

      Telecommute once a week. Americans traveled 614.5 billion miles to and from work in 2001. If all commuters worked from home just one day a week, we could save 5.85 billion gallons of oil and cut over 65 million metric tons (roughly 143 billion pounds) of carbon dioxide each year.

      Carpool and use public transportation when possible. An average 2005 passenger car costs about 31 cents per mile in fuel, maintainance and depreciation to drive. If you share rides and use other means to get to work, you'll save yourself money, reduce congestion on the roads and cut your global warming pollution.

Ethanol and other biofuels

Cars don't run on gas alone—at least not all of them. Ironically, sometimes looking ahead means looking backward. Ford's Model Ts were designed to run on either gas or ethanol, an alternative fuel made from grains and from plant or animal waste.

There are many potential benefits to biofuels such as ethanol, which is currently made mostly from corn. For one, they can reduce dependence on foreign oil: one consortium of growers, the Agricultural Working Group, has called on farmers to meet 25 percent of America's energy needs by 2025. Today, nearly every car can run on E10, gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol. About one in forty cars can run on E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Find out if your car can run on ethanol.

Now, ethanol wasn't developed to solve global warming, and greenhouse emissions savings from biofuels can vary substantially (e.g., Do farmers forgo plowing to trap more gases in the soil? Do they cut back on nitrogen fertilizers, which release a potent global warming pollutant? Is the fuel made from the grain or, more efficiently, from "stover"—the stalks and leaves?).  But some biofuels can help reduce emissions that contribute to global warming. Farmers and refiners are continuing to work on new approaches and processes that can produce low-carbon fuels that yield much greater global warming benefits over time. Consumers should stay tuned.

When it comes to global warming, how and what we drive are two of our most powerful choices. Transportation is the biggest source of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, more than factories or homes. 

    * Save fuel: Use less gas with your current car

    * Choose green: Buy a clean, efficient car

Global Warming

What You Can Do

http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/page.cfm?tagID=135

Burning fossil fuels to power our homes and run our cars creates global warming pollution. Big and small changes can add up and make a real difference in the fight against global warming.

At Home: Use Less Energy

Home energy accounts for 21 percent of America's global warming pollution. If we make smart choices, we can cut more pollution than the entire emissions of over 100 countries!

    * Change a bulb: Better energy-saving lights

    * Greener power: Re-thinking home energy

    * Full list of tips: How to cut pollution at home

Neutralize Your Pollution

http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/page.cfm?tagID=270

How does it work?

Even if you have already reduced your driving and electricity use, there's more you can do. You can neutralize the rest of your pollution—through offsets. When you buy offsets, you essentially pay someone to reduce or remove global warming pollution in your name.

For example, when you buy 10 tons of carbon offsets, the seller guarantees that 10 fewer tons of global warming pollution go into the atmosphere. While the pollution you produce yourself is the same, you get the credit for that 10-ton reduction.

Where can you buy offsets?

Shopping for offsets can be confusing. If you're not an expert, it can be hard to tell how much pollution is really being reduced or removed.

Calculator for C02

http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/content.cfm?contentid=5043