October 22, 2020

Next steps in Human-Computer Interaction

“We cannot achieve what we cannot imagine.”

One of the things that struck me about this paper was the tentativeness of the authors to define what the protopian version of these technologies might be. I am grateful that they acknowledge challenges of the current cultural and social issues that surround the development of these technologies, but I often find myself wondering "okay we know its bad now... how do we build the bridge to where we want to be."

The people conducting and researching the tools and technologies they talk about, could also share insight into their hopes for the field. In this way, they could define the space, "north stars," to guide these technologies and the people that create them in more protopian directions.

October 20, 2020

Designing the Behavior of Interactive Objects

Any interaction is imbued with personality. We apply anthropomorphic qualities to objects in our everyday life whether that's calling malfunctioning machines names or applying gender characteristics to everyday objects. What the focus of this paper is researching whether these type of interactions can be created and studied.

It's interesting that they choose this area to focus on for their research since while common, I think most people just want a sofa to be a sofa. While users did start to form expectations of the sofa's, I feel that the novelty of these interactions would fade quickly over time.

October 2, 2020

The Perception of the Environment

Meaning is there to be discovered in the landscape, if only we know how to attend to it.

As undergraduate, I took a course called Landscapes in Literature because I assumed we would be reading about "happy daffodils dancing in the wind" (Wordsworth) or treks through foggy heaths (Brontë), but the professor had a similar outlook to Tim Ingold on what constituted a landscape in literature. We started off with "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman working our way to "A Journal of a Plague Year" by Daniel Defoe. Both of these works in particular deal with how mental or physical states affect their perception of the environment that they live in.

A key part of the class was writing about the meaning of landscapes depicted in the works that we read. The professor encouraged us to write the most "BS papers you can. Make me believe it." when interpreting the text. This caused me take both a critical and creative eye to the texts I was reading. Critical to discover what are the patterns of the landscape, and creative to convey meaning to the those patterns.

October 2, 2020

Phenomenology in HCI

Extremely simplified, experience is limited to the bodies capability to experience. Perception is the interpretation of that experience. Consciousness is how our perceptions construct our reality. Phenomenology is the interaction and dissection of these constructs.

I found this article interesting because while never directing mentioning this article touched on many of themes present in Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, who is sometimes referred to as the philosopher king. Additionally, I would consider, The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, a HCI design specific application of these principles. I will explore these connections below.

Phenomenology, Meditations, and the everyday.

II. XV — All is as thinking makes it so.

WIP

III. X — Remind yourself too that each of us lives only in the present moment, a mere fragment of time: the rest of life is past or uncertain future.

Consciousness as a temporal structure. Here Aurelius is exploring how our "primal impression" is the one that grounds us in the present. And to spend too much time in "retention" and "protention" phases detracts from the experience of now ~ where the melody lives. As designers I interpret this to mean, give only the information that is needed in the present, in consideration of past and present but not overvaluing.

IV. IV — Constantly bring to mind all that you yourself have already seen changed. The universe is change: life is judgement.

WIP

IX. ILII. II — You will find that none of these who excite your anger has done anything capable of affecting your mind for the worse: and it is only in your mind that damage or harm can be done to you — they have no other existence.

WIP

September 28, 2020

Learning to Sense with Arduino

Our current senses —sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste— give us a rich portrait of the world. But in the classic paradox, what if we could use the technology around us to sense more? Would we be able to access a richer, portrait of the world around, making the invisible bonds that bring us together or drive us apart a part of our felt sensory experience...

This is a big question, and the best way to attack any big question, is to start small. So I am starting with the humble Arduino Uno.

Blink

Blink is the "Hello World" of learning to build with Arduino. I initially struggled some with this task. Im admittedly a little unfamiliar with wiring. Since my breadboard was a little different than the tutorial, it took a little bit of figuring out how to adapt it for a mini-breadboard, but I think this helped me learn a lot about that basics so in the end I am grateful.

Piezzo Buzzer

The circuits on this tutorial were much simpler than the last project. After completing the initial tone, I want to find a way to play music from Legend of Zelda on the buzzer. I searched a few examples, and found one for Song of Hyrule. However I was unable to use this code since I do not know how to set up a library in Arduino, so I settled on a different tune because I know I could make it work.

Button

After watching this tutorial a few times, I was able to draw out a rough circuit diagram on a post-it note of how to adapt it to my mini breadboard and two prong button. I was able to get it working on the first try thanks to my diagram. In the future, I think I will try and draw rough diagrams of what I think is happening within a tutorial to make sure I am following along.

Button

After watching this tutorial a few times, I was able to draw out a rough circuit diagram on a post-it note of how to adapt it to my mini breadboard and two prong button. I was able to get it working on the first try thanks to my diagram. In the future, I think I will try and draw rough diagrams of what I think is happening within a tutorial to make sure I am following along.

This work is being completed as part of my graduate studies in HCI for HyperSense: augmenting the human experience taught by Dina El-Zanfaly.

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Designed by Rachel Arredondo