Figure 1: Ordering Control

Creating a custom control allows us to do a number of things that we just cannot do with a normal HTML form element:

Figures 2, 3 & 4: Showing lower bounds, non-default value and upper bounds

• Display relevant information instead of certain values, such as showing Automatic at 0 in Figure 1
• Show when the upper and lower bounds are reached, for example at -100 and 100 as per our example
• Allow the user to reset the value to the default or previous setting
• Give some inkling into how the control should be used

Controls

Figure 5: Annotated Ordering Field

• Previous/Next: update the value of the field to the previous or next value in the range
• Reset: reset the value to the pre-defined default value
• Display: allow us to display feedback or custom messages based on the value of the field we’re manipulating

This interaction is fairly rudimentary and not very exciting to say the least. We really want to provide more desktop-like interaction via our own custom controls such as the ability to click-and-hold a button in order to scroll through available values. With such a control, in the majority of desktop applications, when the button is held the action that button denotes will be repeated after a short delay usually with increasing speed the longer it’s held. We can emulate this in JavaScript using a timeout to create the pause and a modifier to decrease the length of this pause and in turn increase the speed with which the actions are executed.

Code Snippit 1 contains a brief outline of how to create a mechanism for firing events when a button is held.

<script type="text/javascript">
    var timeout          = 1000;
    var timeout_limit    = 200;
    var timeout_speedup  = 1.5;
    var default          = 0;
    var lower_bounds     = -100;
    var upper_bounds     = 100;

    function setView( str, element ) {
        // Update the ordering element setting the values and
        // icons as necessary
      ...
    }

    function updateVariable() {
        // Update variable
        order        = document.getElementById( "ordering" );
        order_disp   = document.getElementById( "order_disp" );

        // Update variable
        order.value  = order.value + 1;

        // Check Bounds
        if( order.value >= upper_bounds )
            setView( "upper_bounds", order_disp );
        elseif( order.value == default )
            setView( "Default", order_disp );
        else
            setView( "" + order.value, order_disp );

        // Start firing click-and-hold events
        if( timeout > timeout_limit )
            timeout = max( timeout / timeout_speedup, timeout_limit );
        t = setTimeout( updateVariable, timeout );
    }

    function buttonStop( t ) {
        timeout = 1000;
        clearTimeout( t );
    }
</script>

timeout is the time between calling button events, the timeout_speedup modifier is used to recalculate the timeout on each event in order to increase the speed with which the event is fired. We set a lower limit, timeout_limit, to ensure that the events aren’t called too quickly to update the display and to give the user time to react once they near their desired value. A plot of time between ticks against ticks is shown in Graph 1, as you can see it quickly ramps up so timeout is set to the lower limit, much like you would expect from a desktop application’s click-and-hold button interaction.

Graph 1: Timeout vs. Ticks

Code Snippit 2 shows sample HTML used to create the next button with the appropriate onmousedown, onmouseup and onmouseout JavaScript calls to add the desired functionality to the button.

<img
    title="Next" src="images/icons/arrow_right.png" alt="&rarr;"
    
    onmousedown="updateVariable();"
    
    onmouseup="buttonStop( t );"
    
    onmouseout="buttonStop( t );"
/>

We use both onmouseup and onmouseout to ensure that the click-and-hold behavior ceases when the user either releases the mouse button or moves the cursor off the control.

Figure 6: Textentry into ordering field

Feedback

Here’s where our custom controls can really begin to shine, we can give the user direct feedback in the control that they’re manipulating in real-time. Sure we can do this with JavaScript as it stands, but extending beyond the “red border = wrong” methodology we can give visual cues to the user to show that they’re trying to do something thata’s wrong and what specifically is wrong with what they’re doing.

Showing the bounds of the field is easy using the visual cues we’ve detailed in Figures 2 & 4. Other visual cues we can use are that of text/background colouring to show that an error occurred. We can also, using the same timeout methods used for the click-and-hold interaction, display useful messages to the user for a brief time before correcting their mistakes telling them what they did wrong and why their entries have been changed, Figure 7.

Figure 7: Error detection and correction

It’s only an example!

Figure 8: Other possible controls?

What’s the point? There’s so much we can do nowadays in terms of interaction, even on the web. Try to add a little bit of interactive zest to your HTML controls, it makes everyone’s experience that little bit easier and better.

Thanks for reading,
- Chris

The overview given on the Apple site looks very nice. The device itself, if it works as detailed, will allow all control to take place with the use of your fingers – there’s no stylus in sight. Other fine looking features are the text message displays which look like an iChat conversation showing previous text messages you’ve recieved from the same contact; and self-reorientation of the screen – switching between either portrait or landscape based upon how the device is held.

It’s obvious to me that someone has dropped a large weight onto a PDA, Mac Book, mobile phone and an iPod and that this device is the result. It looks nice and it seems to be brimming with features. Let’s hope they make it and soon. Where can I preorder one?
- Chris

After a few attempts to clean the contacts and eventually breaking the somewhat brittle metal I decided that an upgrade was the only sensible course of action – also owing to the fact my current mouse is as ergonomic as a brick!

A quick look around on eBuyer threw up several options of which I chose the Logitech G7 Cordless Laser Mouse.

I’m not sure what the difference having a laser mouse has compared to a good old fashioned optical mouse, but anything with a laser built in is obviously superior! The mouse itself boasts 2 Li-Ion battery packs which charge on a base station provided with the mouse, meaning that there’s no downtime when one battery runs out, and some pretty nifty looking battery indicators to tell you when the current one is running low. The mouse can also be programmed with variable resolutions from 400 dpi to 2000 dpi, this can be switched on-the-fly whilst using the device, apparently allowing you to jump “from pixel-precise targeting to fast-twitch maneuvers, without pausing the action”.

Below are some of the images of the device from the Logitech website, expect more to follow and a review when I actually receive the device.

Much World of Warcraft will ensue when the mouse actually arrives (although no more than before it arrives)!
- Chris

Also on the agenda has been getting a new mobile phone, after looking around for a while I found the perfect (or so it seems) fusion of the two: the XDA Exec.

The Exec is the O2 version of the i-mate JasJar and boasts the same list of impresive features. I managed to pick mine up with a contract for less than a quarter of the £600+ that would be required to buy a JasJar alone.

It should hopefully arrive on Tuesday morning and I can have a play around with it then. I’ll post more about the workings of the device then. For now look at the purty pictures above.
- Chris

I am currently running a questionnaire into how people organise and browse their music collections in order to investigate browsing techniques for browsing large collections (in this case of music) from a sonified and gesture controlled interface. The study will look at the applicability of this type of interface for browsing large collections and attempt to find a suitable browsing method for doing so.

I would kindly ask anyone reading this to fill in a relatively short music questionnaire about how you browse and organise your music collections. It doesn’t matter if your collection is large or small, digital or CDs, all input is welcomed.

If you would take the time to fill in the questionnaire I would be very grateful.
- Chris

The project I’m undertaking is entitled 3D Sonification with Gestures. It is a self proposed project which myself and Steve Brewster came up with, and thus Steve will be supervising the project.

I wrote a small blurb (below) which presents the main idea of the project, which was then submitted to the projects coordinator (who this year happens to be David Watt) and it was accepted.

There has been a lot of work over recent years into the use of gestures with computers, work in this area continues and is constantly being integrated with different technologies and other types of interactions to create new and more sophisticated interactions between humans and computers.

The project proposed here is to combine gestures with sonification on a handheld device such as a PDA for an application such as the browsing and selection of music through the use of 3D spacial audio.

The research would study the effectiveness of use of 3D spacial audio for the selection of items which are placed around a user at different angles and distances, the study would specifically look into the way in which users would use such a system and any possible implications in the area of handheld/mobile devices.

My project proposal has to be finished and in for the 2nd May and the whole project and dissertation finished for the 11th September. Hopefully I’ll get a fair bit of reading done over Christmas (but is that really likely?).
- Chris

I finished my job at the University over two weeks ago now, spent a week looking after the pub at home for my folks when they were on holiday and am now back at University and into my second week.

The Job

Went well, everything was finished, more or less, and all wrapped up. Steve Brewster and David McGookin colaborated and wrote a paper based upon what I did over the Summer. They’ve submitted it to CHI 2006, whether it gets accepted or not, we’ll have to see.

The Pub

An eventful week was had by all, consisting of things blowing up, throwing people out of the bar and kicking in doors. I’ll say no more.

The University

Uni is going fine, although the research readings course is a bit hefty. I’ve decided to do Information Retrieval (M), Types and Programming Languages (M) and Network Communications Technology 4.

The courses seem interesting enough, with TPL and IR both grabbing the attention quickly (Simon actually seems pleased about the class size dwindling each session. As I’ve said the Research Readings is taking up a lot of time: reading 4 papers a week and summarising 2 of them (all four for the first few weeks). Then there’s two in-depth reviews to be done throughout this term!

There’s another few courses which I am privy to, Research Methods and Techniques (M) is one which starts this Thursday and Professional Skills (M) (a sort of masters level Professional Issues) is due to start in another 3 weeks. Anyway, everything’s going well and all this reading and discussion of papers can be exciting at times. Most of the time it’s pretty boring though.

That’s the lot folks, hope everyone is having as good a time as me at their respective jobs or courses (or mid-morning TV watchings),
- Chris

P.S. I’ve now also managed to break the 3 st barrier on my diet, now having lost 3 st 2 lb (or 0.019958064 metric tonnes).

What I would like is some sort of system wide change dependant upon the network location I’m in.

For example, when in a networked area I always run a few widgets to pull things off the web, like flickrframe and a wikipedia widget. What would be nice is when I switch to a non networked location, these widgets would disappear off my dashboard until I get back onto a network.

Another issue I have is with Safari, whenever I launch it I am always taken to this site, which is fair enough if I’m on a network. But wouldn’t it be better to take me to a different location when there’s no network available (such as http://localhost), I do a lot of work on the train and it annoys the hell out of me when I launch Safari to be presented with a page telling me I’m not connected to the Internet – no shit, that’s why I changed the location in the first place!

I’m sure they’re are other arguments for and against doing this, but it would be nice to have something available to do it for you.
- Chris

This has gotten me thinking about what else smell could be used for.

It occurs to me that smell, rather than being used as an input, would be better used as a notification system. The idea that shot straight to mind was an Olfactory Clock.

The use of ambient smell to mark status is one which can be done with relative ease, say 2 smells, one for AM and the other for PM. All you’d need to do is smell the air and you’d know if it was morning or night (assuming you had no grasp at all of the time of day).

A smell an hour

Say we then did this for the hours of the day, 24 different smells which represent the hour that it is. Although you don’t get the fine grained information you would from a clock, you’d still know that if you’d smelt the 10 AM smell that you still had at least an hour before the big 12 PM meeting you are meant to attend.

So the main premise is to have a range of 24 (even 12 would do) smells which represent the hours 00 – 24 (or in the case of 12 smells 00 – 12 and 12 – 24 again). By recognising the smells you could roughly tell the time of day.

Say if we had 24 smells for each hour and the smells for the hour bore some resemblance to that hour of the day, for example in the early morning, at say 7 AM, you would get the light fresh smell of a new day, whereas at 7 PM you would be greeted with the danker and more Autumn smell of the evening.

If we have smells which migrate throughout the day, from the fresh morning smell to the height of the day and on to the dusk/night then we can have a continuous output of the time of day, represented by the changing mixture of the smell of that time of day.

Silent chimes

If we have this continuous output we will never be able to tell when the hours change, there’s no way to chime the hour in.

Perhaps if we had silent chimes that were smelled rather than heard. A few strong blasts of that hours smell should alert anyone in the vicinity of the new hour or at least alert them that another hour has passed.

Alarming

So if we can alert people to the time and the changes in the hours, wouldn’t it be useful to be able to have some sort of alarm system? Yes it would!

We can do this is much the same way that we are chiming in the hours, using a strong burst of smell to indicate the event or time has been reached. This also gives us the added option to somehow link the alarm to the time or event that is being alerted. For example say an alarm was set on an ordinary clock for 12:00 PM to show it was lunch time. When it goes off you are told it is 12:00 PM but not that it’s lunch time. If, however, we use a smell to tell you that it’s 12:00 PM and that smell is associated with lunch time then we can give you information about the time and the event. So perhaps a smell of apples could be used to show that it’s lunch time, then whenever you smell that apple scent you’d know that you should be off to the canteen to get the best choice of the muffins.

This allows us then to have different alarms with different meanings, instead of having an alarm at 12:00 PM then another at 5:00 PM you’d have a lunch related one at 12:00 and a travel related one at 5:00 to signal to you that it’s time to go home.

That’s all fine and well…

But how can you do it?

I’ve seen some papers which discuss the use of readily available (but at a large price) components that will allow you to generate smell by connecting the device to your computer via USB. These devices use wax, which is heat up, to generate the smell. A small fan then blows the smell into the air.

Something like this would be ideal, with the ability to buy different wax disks to place in the clock allowing users to customise the smell of their clock.

When I first had this idea I drew a few sketches of the idea which you can see below:

This is the main view of the clock, the grill on the top dispenses the smell into the air.

The back of the clock, it has two trays (one for AM and one for PM) into which the wax disks for the smell could be loaded/replaced.

Side of the clock, with trays which would contain the wax disks used for the alarm smells.

The face of the clock, with an analogue face to allow the user to read the time, also a digital one (why not). Buttons could be used to set the clock and change date times (although if the device was attached to a computer it would probably seem best to do this via a GUI rather than physically on the clock!).

Clock of the future

So there it is folks, the clock of the future! Pre-order one now, send me £1000 in the mail and I’ll send one to you as soon as the first batch rolls off.
- Chris

So I decided to do all of Matthew’s questions as the question Phil wrote contained too much that I didn’t know. Details of the questions are given below:

Question 1

• A – Functionality of DigitalDesk focusing on user context [3]
• B – Affordances, descriptions of basic affordances illustrating via the DigitalDesk example [9]
• C – Ubicomp, description of and examples of “focusing on the task, not the tool” [5]
• D – Weiser’s ubicomp approach is “unachievable or incomplete”, argue for this claim [8]

Question 2

• A – Name 3 wide area positioning systems, outlining coverage, accuracy, cost and availability [6]
• B – RF positioning for ubicomp, factors that affect quality, transmission and detection in terms of objective and subjective satisfaction [6]
• C – Outline two design methods for using RF tags with spacial and temporal variation taken into account[7]
• D – Critique the notion of separate physical and digital worlds, explain why ubicomp can be treated as part of language [6]

Question 3

• A – Outline Wegner’s proof that human interaction with a computer cannot be reduced to an algorithmic representation [3]
• B – Describe basic functionality and interaction design of Coordinator workflow system [4]
• C – Draw upon this and ‘situated action’ critique to discuss limitations of the Coordinator’s central representations [6]
• D – Describe the Placeless Documents systems, and the SE tool built with it [8]
• E – How does Placeless’ design fit with philosophical and sociological theories? [4]

Question 4

• A – Describe the GOMS model of task performance [5]
• B – Fitt’s Law, relationship between it and GOMS-based predictions of task completion times [6]
• C – Text entry on mobile devices, findings of performance studies and relationships to GOMS performance measures [7]
• D – Plasticity, reference models and how they are linked to task modeling and empirical studies [7]

I was sitting through the whole exam, missing out the questions which I couldn’t do, but still feeling like it was all going fine because I knew that come 11.15 I would be finished. It feels good. From there it was off to the pub for a night out.
- Chris

Some of the concepts described here were taken from a comment I made in response to what Iain had to say about my idea.

Function Fingers

This basically extends on from the use of RFID tags with touch screen monitor which has the capability of wirelessly uploading data to a memory module (via bluetooth, FM radio, other wireless transfer).

As before there would be an RFID tag installed in your finger. However this time instead of just in one finger, an RFID tag would be installed in all the fingers of one hand (left/right dependant upon your preference). These tags, instead of holding transferable data, would be programmed to execute certain commands on the computer.

Also as before we could transfer data and carry files, however the storage of the files would now have to be done via another means – i.e. a chip implanted into the hand, an attached device (such as a watch) or perhaps through the use of a glove (also removing the need for the RFID tags being inserted into the fingers).

The diagram below shows how this could be done with RFID tags inserted into each finger and a main memory repository into the hand (which would require more surgery than a simple RFID tag insertion).

As you can see each finger is assigned a function, when the screen is touched with that particular function finger (FF), that function is carried out on the selected application.

A user could for instance:

1. Use FF_CLICK to click on a specific application
2. Hold FF_CLICK on the application, invoking the drag functionallity
3. Drag the finger across a piece of text to highlight it
4. Hit the highlighted text with FF_CUT to cut the text from that application
5. The cut text would then be transferred to the paste buffer as well as the memory contained in the hand
6. From here the user could use FF_PASTE to paste the data back onto the same computer or could move to another machine and paste in the same way

Roaming Data

Having a data repository held in your hand (assuming that the data held is non-degrading) allows the use of cross computer profiling. Instead of having to set up a home computer, work computer and laptop all to work and look the same way; you could carry this data around with you in your hand!

A globally roaming profile could be established which would allow you to instantly gain access to the same desktop as you have available on your other machines (dependant upon availability of applications and media of course).

Logging into a computer could be made a lot simpler:

A touch of the screen within the box on the dialog will allow you to log into the system. There is no need for passwords as they are stored within your hand, no need to remember usernames or login IDs.

This can also be used for a range of data, i.e. your e-mail details, site logins, credit card information, pretty much anything, could be held within the memory in your hand. This eradicates the need for keychains or passwords to be stored on your computer – only you need the passwords so only you have access to them! There is an obvious need for backups and such but essentially the copy in your hand is the only available copy of the information.

You take your data with you, there is no unnecessary storage of your volatile information and only you (unless via a severed hand), have access to it. Take your bank details, profile, usernames, passwords, phone numbers, addresses, anything; with you wherever you go.

Forget remembering phone numbers because landline phones will be able to read them off your hand and will allow you to select who you want to call. E-mail addresses, no problem just check your roaming address book and find the person you want to e-mail.

Ok, so maybe I’m getting a bit carried away, but you get the idea.

The most handy accessory of all, your hand,
- Chris

I have had an idea which may revolutionise computing.

The main idea is the use of an RFID tag much like was proposed for clubs and bars in order to pay for drinks and build up a profile of drinking habits, allowing people to scan their arms or hands in order to pay for/order drinks.

The idea which I have uses this technology to provide a means of cross computer interaction with no physical connection between them (i.e. network). The idea is spawned from days in the lab, sitting with my PowerBook and desktop machine both running at the same time. My desktop has an Internet connection whereas my PowerBook however does not have a connection at university, this poses a problem whilst trying to exchange data (text snipits, files, URLs, etc) between the two computers.

The RFID tag is implanted into the forefinger of the user’s left hand, then when using a special keyboard with an RFID sensor underneath the user can copy data between the computer and his hand. From here the user will be able to use the data stored in his hand with other devices.

This would allow the user to say:

1. highlight a region of text
2. hit Ctrl + Shift + C (or some other shortcut) to copy the text
3. this would transfer the data to the RFID tag
4. then using a second keyboard they would hit Ctrl + Shift + V
5. this would paste the text into the foreground process on the second computer

This would solve all those niggling problems with transferring and copying data between two physically near computers without the need for e-mail, file transfers or other means of doing so. Obviously this is constrained by file sizes and the data held in the RFID tag would degrade over time, however as this is a local, quick exchange of data, that shouldn’t matter.

Essentially you would be transferring data in a Minority Report style of interaction (without all the cool hand gestures). You would carry the data from one terminal to another.

Stick a finger up at USB sticks,
- Chris

The concept is a system which allows a group of users to collectively comment on a given base document. This document may be a set of notes for a course, a collective report which all members will be required to comment on, and so forth.

These base notes will be given as an HTML page which can then be augmented by adding notes to the page. This will add a link to the page which will allow other users to view the comments. It will then be possible to add responses to these comments and link back to other comments or webpages.

The diagram below shows the structure that the augmented notes will take:

This software may be used for a course website with all the course notes on it. Members of the class could then login and comment on the notes, they would also be able to respond to comments already given on the page.

This will allow members of the class to get the benefit of each others perspective, perhaps picking up things that they missed during the lectures. It will reduce the load on a lecturer as well as allowing him/her to pick up any misinterpreted parts of the lectures.

Hope you all enjoy, I will update with news when I start producing something.
- Chris

My idea is given in bullet points below:

• Your site is parsed and a tree is made up of the site
• A 3D map is made up of your site (with rooms representing pages and corridors representing links)
• All the information given on each page is put somewhere in each room
• A quake/doom/… style character is spawned and you can start ‘browsing’ the site starting from the index
• Highly linked pages are easy to find whereas lowly linked pages will have less corridors leading to them and thus are harder to find
• Information on the pages, stored in the corresponding room, can be used to allow access to other rooms

This allows the user to have a real walk through their site, looking at the information on each page. Perhaps links in the content can direct the user down a corridor or will open the door to that corridor allowing them to travel to the linked page.

Goals could be to browse the whole site or to find a very remote page, perhaps battling HTML/XHTML/PHP/Javascript errors as monsters or solving puzzles to access parts of the site, a community of sites could build up different maps which when linked would allow a user to jump from one site to another and start exploring that.

A very basic idea, but it would be fun to see if anyone could (or would ever bother) to do it.
- Chris

Not only that, but I didn’t even start until 11.00 AM. I’m now free to do whatever pleases me in the afternoon. This was an unexpected delight due to the courses I have chosen, I started the day with a SEP4 lecture which was then followed by an HCI4 lecture and I’m done. If I decide to take SCS4 this term then I will have a lecture straight after lunch and will be finished for 3.00 PM.

Good God I rule!
- Chris