Showing papers by "Ronald M. Baecker published in 2005"

Participatory design of an orientation aid for amnesics

Abstract: We present the participatory design and evaluation of an orientation aid for individuals who have anterograde amnesia. Our design team included six amnesics who have extreme difficulty storing new memories. We describe the methods we used to enable the participation of individuals with such severe cognitive impairments. Through this process, we have conceived, designed, and developed the OrientingTool, a software application for Personal Digital Assistants that can be used by amnesics to orient themselves when feeling lost or disoriented. Two complementary studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this tool in ecologically valid contexts. Our findings suggest that the OrientingTool can improve an amnesic's independence and confidence in managing situations when disoriented, and that participatory design may be productively used with participants who have significant cognitive disabilities.

Designing interactive life story multimedia for a family affected by alzheimer's disease: a case study

Abstract: In this paper we present a design project involving primary end users who have declining cognitive abilities such as memory, communication, and problem solving. We are designing interactive multimedia with personalized life stories for individuals with Alzheimer's disease. We conducted a case study to discover and address the design challenges for this project. A particular challenge is a limited ability to communicate with the primary end users. In this paper, we present design methods that take this challenge into consideration. Our goal is to contribute insight into designing for users with cognitive disabilities, and to present methodologies that are useful for designers who have a limited ability to interact or communicate with end users.

User strategies for handling information tasks in webcasts

Abstract: Webcast systems support real-time webcasting, and may also support access to the stored webcasts. Yet, research rarely examines issues concerning the interface to webcast systems, another form of multimedia system. This paper focuses specifically on how stored webcasts are re-used. Sixteen participants performed three typical information tasks using ePresence, a webcasting system that handles both live and stored video, and contains several tools: a video window, a timeline of the webcast, slides used by the presenter, and a moderator-generated table of contents, that facilitate user access to the intellectual content of a stored video. Use takes place at the level of the webcast, and our analysis assessed user interactivity. The results showed that different types of tasks need different strategies and tools.

Assessing tools for use with webcasts

Abstract: This research assessed the effectiveness of selected interface tools in helping people respond to classic information tasks with Webcasts. Rather than focus on a classic search/browse task to locate an appropriate Webcast to view, our work takes place at the level of an individual Webcast to assess interactivity within the contents of a single Webcast. The questions guiding our work are: (1) Which tool(s) are the most effective in achieving the best response? (2) How do users use those tools for task completion? In this study, 16 participants responded to a standard set of information tasks using ePresence, a Webcasting system that handles both live and stored video, and provides multiple techniques for accessing content. Using questionnaires, screen capture and interviews, we evaluated the interaction, assessed the tools, and based on our results, make suggestions for improving access to the content of stored Webcasts

Interaction at Lincoln laboratory in the 1960's: looking forward -- looking back

Abstract: The activity centered around the TX-2 computer at Lincoln Laboratory in the 1960's laid the foundation for much of HCI. Through the use of archival film footage, and live presentations by some of the key protagonists, this panel is intended to contribute to a more general awareness of this work, its historical importance to HCI, and its relevance to research today.

Open Source Strategies for Educational Multimedia

Abstract: ePresence is an educational multimedia system for producing interactive webcasts that are accessible in real-time by remote viewers and retrospectively by archive viewers who can browse and search for what they want to see. This paper briefly presents the system, motivates our decision to release it using a combined open source and “community source” model, and highlights major challenges that lie ahead. Four classes of challenge are identified: technology, community, legal framework, and business model. Responses to the challenges are described. The ePresence System ePresence Interactive Media (Baecker 2002b; Baecker 2003; Baecker Moore and Zijdemans 2003; Baecker Wolf and Rankin 2004; Rankin Baecker and Wolf 2004) is a web-based streaming (webcasting) and collaboration tool for large-scale broadcast of events over the Internet — from university lectures to public health briefings to annual meetings to rock concerts. Events are streamed live and can later be easily deployed as browsable, searchable archives accessed through a customizable web portal. Webcasting itself is non-interactive, which is overcome by combining it with interactive features. For example, ePresence currently employs text chat as a mechanism for allowing interaction among remote participants, and between these individuals and the speaker via a moderator. For both live and archived events, ePresence provides a rich multimedia experience for viewers connecting over the Internet using desktop and mobile clients. During a live event, end-users have access to an audio-video feed, navigable slide images, and a text chat system. Live events can be quickly and easily archived, and made available to users via the portal. Archives are full-text searchable, and provide an interactive timeline and two-level table of contents for easy browsing and navigation. The concept of hierarchically structured video is based in part on work previously described in Baecker, et al. (1996) and Baecker and Smith (2003). More specifically, ePresence currently includes support for: • video, audio, slide, and live desktop demos; • slide review; • moderated chat, private messages, and the submission of questions; and • the automated creation of structured, navigable, searchable event archives. ePresence also allows configurable live and archive interfaces through tailorable “skins”. The media capturing and streaming engines run under Windows or Linux; client viewers exist for the IBM PC, the Macintosh, and Linux. Media may be transmitted using Windows Media, Real Media, and MPEG4. Webcasts may be received with bandwidths as low as a 56K modem. The software is implemented with .NET technology and is highly modular. ePresence is a powerful platform for research into large-scale collaboration and communication, and new features are always under development. For example, we are working on enhanced interactivity for all users, including those present in the local audience, those viewing remotely, and those viewing the archives, through both text and voice modalities. More specifically, we are studying the use of voice over IP with spatial audio (Kilgore, et al., 2003) for discussions among remote viewers (Schick, Scheffel-Dunand, and Baecker, 2005) and ultimately also questions to the speaker. Studies of how viewers use structured, navigable, searchable archives (Dufour, et al., 2004, 2005; Toms et al., 2005) are underway, as is work on the automatic recognition of speech and especially of the keywords on the audio track. The project has generated significant interest. ePresence has now been adopted by over fifteen universities and medical schools, with more signing up each month. This has caused us to think about how to make the technology more widely available. The approach we have adopted is open source software. Open Source Software The concepts of “open source” and “free software” represent international movements in the collective development of software and other knowledge media. Open source refers to the practice of sharing source code with a community that is encouraged and empowered to read, comment, amend, and augment it (DiBono, Ockman, and Stone, 1999; Weber, 2004: see also http://www.opensource.org/. Free software refers to a philosophical belief that software should be open and must remain open when redistributed, which some interpret to imply that only related services and not the software itself should cost money (Williams, 2002; see also http://www.fsf.org/). These intertwined movements are arguably two of the most important forces shaping today’s knowledge media industries (Benkler, 2002; Boyle, 2003). They are transforming the artifacts and the business and social practices of the software industry, but also are more broadly impacting the production and use of other knowledge media such as encyclopedias, scientific journals, and digital audio and video. In these latter manifestations, the movements sometimes go under the names of “open content” and “open access” (Lessig, 1999, 2001, 2004; see also http://creativecommons.org/). The two most notable examples of successful open source software development are the Linux operating system (Moody, 2001) and the Apache web server. Yet it is important to realize that the principles and practice of open sources are not limited to system software, and have relevance to software applications in general (see, for example, http://www.osafoundation.org/) and educational multimedia systems in particular. A Case Study of Open Source Educational Multimedia ePresence is currently being released under an open source framework. Our primary reason for pursuing the open source approach is to give ePresence adopters maximum flexibility in tailoring the system to their needs. Many of those interested in the system intend to use it in eLearning, where appropriate technology must fit the organizational culture and philosophy of an educational institution. Every organization that has adopted the system or used it in collaboration with us has approached its use in a different manner. Feedback from early adopters suggests that this will be an important source of differentiation from an already crowded marketplace of proprietary software vendors. Open source also seems to be the best strategy to allow the technology to be adopted by individuals and small groups who want to make use of educational multimedia but lack the infrastructure and means to adopt an expensive proprietary solution. Another advantage of the open source model is the enhanced opportunity for testing and improving the technology. The goal is to form a strong community of institutions and individuals who will collaborate on future research and development. Challenges, and our Responses to the Challenges To succeed with this strategy in a proprietary software world, we need to solve several critical problems.

Forty years of human-computer interaction and knowledge media design: twelve challenges to meet in fewer than the next forty years

Abstract: Inspired in part by a seminal article by JCR Licklider on "man-computer symbiosis" [3, see also 4, 5], a wonderful course entitled "Technological aids to human thought" taught by Anthony Oettinger that I took at Harvard early in 1966, and the vitality and excitement of MIT Project Mac, the AI Lab, and especially Lincoln Lab [2], I began research in interactive computing shortly after the September 1965 start of my Ph.D. work at M.I.T. Now, 40 years later, receiving this honour (with gratitude) allows me the indulgence to rant for at least 40 minutes, reflecting first on the miracles in processor speed, memory capacity, bandwidth, I/O technology, graphics algorithms, and human-computer interfaces that have transpired over this interval [see also 1], and then speaking at much greater length over things that remain undone.The latter topics will be organized into two categories, compelling research challenges (junior faculty without tenure and Ph.D. students searching for topics listen carefully ***), and broader challenges for the fields of human-computer interaction and knowledge media design (senior faculty with tenure seeking to slay dragons listen even more carefully ***).I will briefly sketch and articulate the following six research challenges:• Collaboration technologies --- why are these tools still so hard to use?• Intelligent interfaces --- can AI finally aid humans instead of aiming to replace them, or, why can the computer beat Kasporov, but cannot connect me to the Net?• Design methodologies --- can we do less boasting about being user-centred and start doing better science?• Evaluation methodologies --- how can we gather design intelligence by mining rich potential sources of user experience data from the field?• Interfaces for seniors --- what we can do for seniors and what can they can do for us?• Electronic memory aids --- is this a compelling area promising a major payoff for human productivity and morale?I will then rant for as long as possible on the following six broader issues:• Courses on computers and society and communication skills for computer science students --- if we don't insist that this be taught, and take the lead, who will?• Interfaces in context --- why do I teach knowledge media design and not user interface design?• HCI in computer science departments --- should we continue to "pretend" that we do computer science?• Open source and open access --- if the intellectual property and technology transfer system is broken, shouldn't we try to fix it?• Appropriate automation --- can it and will it ever stop?• Interfaces everywhere --- is change possible, and how can we make things better?