Showing papers by "Richard Harper published in 2006"
04 Nov 2006
TL;DR: A field trial designed to investigate the potential of remote, situated messaging within the home shows a diversity of types of communication which highlight the role of messaging both to a household and to a place.
Abstract: In this paper we describe a field trial designed to investigate the potential of remote, situated messaging within the home. Five households used our "HomeNote" device for approximately a month. The results show a diversity of types of communication which highlight the role of messaging both to a household and to a place. It also shows the ways in which these kinds of messages enable subtle ways of requesting action, expressing affection, and marking identity in a household -- communication types which have received little attention in the research literature. These in turn point to new concepts for technology which we describe.
113 citations
21 Apr 2006
TL;DR: Findings from this workplace trial show its value in helping people have a virtual presence, in locating people, and in fostering a sense of group belonging, and the results suggest how the design could be made more flexible and expressive which will be explored in the upcoming home trial.
Abstract: We describe the initial deployment of a prototype device to support awareness of people's location and activities in an office environment. This is a first step toward the design and testing of a related device for the home. Findings from this workplace trial show its value in helping people have a virtual presence, in locating people, and in fostering a sense of group belonging. However, the results also suggest how the design could be made more flexible and expressive which we will explore in the upcoming home trial.
82 citations
Patent•
25 Sep 2006TL;DR: In this article, an answering machine tool is described which, when a message is received, accesses caller identification data associated with the message and from this data identifies an image for the message.
Abstract: An answering machine tool is described which, when a message is received, accesses caller identification data associated with the message and from this data identifies an image for the message. Data is then output to cause an icon comprising this image to be displayed. This icon, in turn, may be manipulated and interacted with by a user, by touching the icon on a touch sensitive screen or by other means, such as mouse pointer or stylus. This causes the message to be replayed, moved, deleted or be subject to any other course of action that the visual rendering of the message affords the user.
37 citations
20 Nov 2006
TL;DR: The review shows that there will be a niche market for broadcast 'TV content' but that, more interestingly, 'mobile TV' might consist of a new content genre, affording new forms of shared, coproximate experiences.
Abstract: In this paper, we report the findings of a literature review into the experience of and the prospects for mobile TV, in particular multimedia experiences enabled over mobile phone-type devices and networks. The review shows that there will be a niche market for broadcast 'TV content' but that, more interestingly, 'mobile TV' might consist of a new content genre, affording new forms of shared, coproximate experiences.
23 citations
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take a different view: a view not on what communication technologies have done and do, but a view on what they might do when designed in novel ways, and explain why it is that, in the Socio-Digital Systems Group in Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England, they have set up a programme of inquiries into what we are calling New Communications Genre.
Abstract: The chapters in this book are testament to the range of possibilities enabled by current communications technologies. Our own interest in this is reflected in articles and books that we have written that report on the use of various technologies, whether it be SMS (Harper et al., 2005) or fully duplex mobile telephony (Brown et al., 2001). In this chapter, we want to take a different view: a view not on what communication technologies have done and do, but a view on what they might do when designed in novel ways. More particularly, in this chapter, we would like to explain why it is that, in the Socio-Digital Systems Group in Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England, we have set up a programme of inquiries into what we are calling New Communications Genre. This is a long-term programme where we hope to invent and demonstrate the value of a variety of new ways of communicating, of expressing and being in touch.
7 citations
TL;DR: For instance, the authors argue that the walls of teenage experience have been altered; what was once impossible is now achieved at the cost of only a few pence (for a review, see Harper et al. forthcoming).
Abstract: We are often told that mobiles, and that mobile texting in particular, has changed the lives of teenagers (Ling 2004; Nyiri 2003). One can easily imagine how, in the past, teenagers would wonder what their friends were up to, and would have to exercise their minds to figure this out: now, in contrast, they can call or text them. Thus the walls of teenage experience have been altered; what was once impossible is now achieved at the cost of only a few pence (for a review, see Harper et al. forthcoming). But is this change so great? One should remind oneself also that what teenagers find when they make these calls or texts to their friends is not something that will surprise us or them: one imagines that they discover that their friends are, like themselves, lurking in their bedrooms, sulking about too much homework and yearning to be elsewhere. And this indolence, this teenager ennui, one would readily agree, is hardly something new nor, alas, something that will vanish in the ‘mobile age’ (see Katz & Aakhus 2002; Brown et al. 2002; Harper 2003).
6 citations
Patent•
29 Jun 2006TL;DR: In this paper, a communication alert system is used to inform the user that a telecommunications signal has been received, and a controller is arranged to control the selection of the one of a plurality of indicators such that the selection is affected by a user selectable component of the received telecommunications signal.
Abstract: A telecommunications device comprises a communication alert system arranged to inform the user that a telecommunications signal has been received. The communication alert system uses one of a number of different indicators. The controller is arranged to control the selection of the one of a plurality of indicators such that the selection is affected by a user selectable component of the received telecommunications signal.
5 citations
05 Apr 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that people imbue their homes with intelligence by continually weaving together things in their physical worlds with their everyday routines and distinct social arrangements, and that intelligence emerges from our interactions with these surfaces, seen in the thoughtful placement of things throughout the home's ecology of surfaces.
Abstract: In this paper we consider what it should mean to build 'smartness' or 'intelligence' into the home. We introduce an argument suggesting that it is people who imbue their homes with intelligence by continually weaving together things in their physical worlds with their everyday routines and distinct social arrangements. To develop this argument we draw on four ongoing projects concerned with designing interactive surfaces. These projects illustrate how, through the use of surfaces like fridge doors and wall displays, and even bowl shaped surfaces, we keep in touch with one another, keep the sense of our homes intact, and craft our homes as something unique, something special. Intelligence, here, is seen to be something that emerges from our interactions with these surfaces—seen in the thoughtful placement of things throughout the home's ecology of surfaces. Computing for the home is thus understood less as something to be designed as intelligent and more as a resource for intelligence. Author Keywords Surfaces, home, smart homes, domestic technology, ethnography, prototyping.
3 citations
Book•
18 Sep 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an approach for human perception-based image quality assessment based on human perception using a real-time monitoring system for TV commercials using video features.
Abstract: Session 1: Agents.- Towards Bi-directional Dancing Interaction.- An Emotional Path Finding Mechanism for Augmented Reality Applications.- Interacting with a Virtual Conductor.- Animal Controlled Computer Games: Playing Pac-Man Against Real Crickets.- Session 2: Cultural and Psychological Metrics.- Leaving a Message with the PaPeRo Robot: The Effect of Interaction Experience with Real or Virtual PaPeRo on Impression Evaluation.- Passive Interactivity, an Answer to Interactive Emotion.- Entertainment on Mobile Internet Services: From the Korean Consumer Perspectives.- Experimental Approach for Human Perception Based Image Quality Assessment.- Session 3: Transforming Broadcast Experience.- Interaction and Participation in Radio Plays: A Novel Approach to an Old Medium.- Real-Time Monitoring System for TV Commercials Using Video Features.- Interactive Dramaturgy by Generating Acousmetre in a Virtual Environment.- Session 4: Culture, Place, Play.- Exposure to Violent Video Games and Desensitization to Violence in Children and Adolescents.- Kansei Mediated Entertainment.- Backseat Playgrounds: Pervasive Storytelling in Vast Location Based Games.- Session 5: Display Technology.- Layered Multiple Displays for Immersive and Interactive Digital Contents.- Design and Implementation of a Fast Integral Image Rendering Method.- A Neural Classifier for Anomaly Detection in Magnetic Motion Capture.- Multichannel Distribution for Universal Multimedia Access in Home Media Gateways.- Session 6: Authoring Tools 1.- Language-Driven Development of Videogames: The Experience.- Architecture of an Authoring System to Support the Creation of Interactive Contents.- Applying Direct Manipulation Interfaces to Customizing Player Character Behaviour.- Programmable Vertex Processing Unit for Mobile Game Development.- Session 7: Object Tracking.- Vision-Based Real-Time Camera Matchmoving with a Known Marker.- OHAJIKI Interface: Flicking Gesture Recognition with a High-Speed Camera.- The Smart Dice Cup: A Radio Controlled Sentient Interaction Device.- Session 8: Edutainment.- Learning About Cultural Heritage by Playing Geogames.- Dynamic Binding Is the Name of the Game.- Lessons Learned from Designing a Virtual Heritage Entertainment Application for Interactive Education.- Session 9: Network Games.- A Dynamic Load Balancing for Massive Multiplayer Online Game Server.- My Photos Are My Bullets - Using Camera as the Primary Means of Player-to-Player Interaction in a Mobile Multiplayer Game.- Enjoyment or Engagement? Role of Social Interaction in Playing Massively Mulitplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGS).- Session 10: Authoring Tools 2.- On-Line Motion Style Transfer.- Dynamic Skinning for Popping Dance.- Discovery of Online Game User Relationship Based on Co-occurrence of Words.- Posters.- Mobile Phone Gaming (A Follow-Up Survey of the Mobile Phone Gaming Sector and Its Users).- Designing a Story Database for Use in Automatic Story Generation.- An Efficient Algorithm for Rendering Large Bodies of Water.- Forbidden City Explorer: A Guide System That Gives Priority to Shared Images and Chats.- Reinforcement Learning of Intelligent Characters in Fighting Action Games.- Capturing Entertainment Through Heart Rate Dynamics in the Playware Playground.- Design Implications of Social Interaction in Online Games.- TEMPEST: A Text Input System for Musical Performers.- Design Strategies for Enhancing Experience-Based Activities.- Imitating the Behavior of Human Players in Action Games.- Electronic Treasure Hunt: Real-Time Cooperation Type Game That Uses Location Information.- Design of Positive Biofeedback Using a Robot's Behaviors as Motion Media.- Social Landscapes: Visual Interface to Improve Awareness in Human Relationships on Social Networking Sites.- Bare Hand Interface for Interaction in the Video See-Through HMD Based Wearable AR Environment.- Studying User Experience with Digital Audio Players.- The Development of a Collaborative Virtual Heritage Edutainment System with Tangible Interfaces.- Clustering of Online Game Users Based on Their Trails Using Self-organizing Map.- Communication Supports for Building World Wide Internet Game Communities.- Hardcore Gamers and Casual Gamers Playing Online Together.- High-Precision Hand Interface.- Real-Time Animation of Large Crowds.- Vision-Based Bare-Hand Gesture Interface for Interactive Augmented Reality Applications.- PHI: Physics Application Programming Interface.- A Vision-Based Non-contact Interactive Advertisement with a Display Wall.- "SplashGame": A Ludo-educative Application Based on Genre and Verbal Interactions Concepts.- Shadow Texture Atlas.- A Chording Glove for Games: Development of a Wearable Game Device.- VIRSTORY: A Collaborative Virtual Storytelling.
3 citations
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: It is proposed that diversity of human experience should be the focus for design in Ubicomp, and designing for diversity can inspire people to be their own designers, and to express themselves in indeterminate ways.
Abstract: We propose that diversity of human experience should be the focus for design in Ubicomp. This view is contrary to the model than underscores the bulk of Ubicomp research which tends to seek ways of computationally sup-porting and enabling the predictable, the determinate and the measurable. We contend that this approach runs the risk of producing user experiences which can be sterile and mechanical. In contrast, designing for diversity in Ubicomp can inspire people to be their own designers, and to express themselves in indi-vidual ways.
3 citations
01 Jul 2006
TL;DR: The features of the augmented bowl have been designed to exploit our commonsense understandings and everyday uses of container-like objects as discussed by the authors, and they capture the way bowls loosely contain their physical content, so as to enable an informal and to-hand solution for managing digital media.
Abstract: The features we present of the augmented bowl have been designed to exploit our commonsense understandings and everyday uses of container-like objects. As we’ll explain, in choosing the features, we’ve attempted to build on the ways in which physical content can be casually added to or retrieved from a bowl with little to no thought. We’ve also tried to capture the way bowls loosely contain their physical content, so as to enable an informal and to-hand solution for managing digital media.