Hmmm...

Now that I am in six bands, I am left wondering why I never pursued a career in music. I'm not necessarily a good performer; I just get immense pleasure from playing music.

Paper Reading # 9: Jogging over a Distance between Europe and Australia

Reference Information: Jogging over a Distance between Europe and Australia by Florian Mueller, Franke Vetere, Martin Gibbs, Darren Edge, Stefan Agamanolis, and Jennifer Sheridan.
UIST 2010 New York, New York. 

Author Bios: Florian Mueller is known as a "World Expert in Exertion Games." Mueller earned a Bachelor of Multimedia from Griffith University, a Master in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT's Media Lab, and a PhD in Interaction Design on Exertion Games from the University of Melbourne. He is currently researching exertion games at Stanford University as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar.

Franke Vetere works in the Interaction Design Group and is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne.

Martin Gibbs is a lecturer for the Department of Information Systems at the University of Melbourne.

Darren Edge obtained both his Bachelor's and PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is now a researcher in the HCI Group at Microsoft Research Asia. 

Stefan Agamanolis earned his Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from Oberlin College and both his Master's and PhD from MIT. After being Chief Executive and Research Director of Distance Lab at Horizon Scotland, he became the Associate Director of the Rebecca D. Considine Research Institute at Akron Children's Hospital.

Jennifer Sheridan holds a Bachelor's degree in Rhetoric and Professional Writing and Computer Graphics from the University of Waterloo, a Master's in HCI from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a PhD in Computer Science from Lancaster University.Sheridan is a Senior User Experience Consultant and Director of User Experience at BigDog Interactive.


Summary

• Hypothesis: The Jogging over a Distance system will provide insight into the design of computer systems with the purpose of facilitating a social experience in exertion activities.
• Methods: Seventeen joggers were enlisted to go on fourteen runs.
• Results: The authors took the data gathered and formed them into three themes which they turned into design dimensions.
• Contents: Jogging over a Distance is a system designed to facilitate social interactions during exertion activities. The paper describes exertion activities as those that use technology and require intense physical effort to participate. A brief overview talks about some previous and related works, including the Nike+, Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Kinect, and the Sony Move. Unlike support systems such as the Nike+, Jogging over a Distance provides interaction throughout exertion rather than just afterward. Jogging over a Distance was designed this way in an attempt to better understand social interaction during exertion. The runs of seventeen participants were recorded and follow-up interviews were conducted. Using that data, the authors were able to compile design schemes based on three themes: Communication Integration, Virtual Mapping, and Effort Comprehension - all of which contributed to the social experience when using Jogging over a Distance (as seen in the figure below). 
  The relationship between the audio feedback and the physical output comprise communication integration.
  Effort comprehension means giving users a better understanding of what/how they are doing. In the case of this system, it gives heart rate data.
  Virtual mapping converts users' physical efforts to digital information that is shared with others in digital space.
  The authors discuss both the positive and negative aspects of each of the three design dimensions.

Discussion
From the title alone, I thought (with some excitement) this paper detailed what it would take to jog a distance between Europe and Australia, which would no doubt take some very extreme measures. What was actually in this paper was no less exciting, however.
Since the goal of the authors was to see if Jogging over a Distance would provide insight into the social interactions that occur in exertion, I'd say they achieved that goal effectively. For the most part, I felt their results were relatively solid, but I think they were lacking a little bit regarding the effort comprehension area. They admitted that heart rate may not be the best performance indicator.
I was interested in this paper because I enjoy a good run, though I don't usually go running with technology other than my cell phone. I had heard about products such as the Nike+, and I was interested to see what new technologies were being developed for physical activity. I'm more old-fashioned when it comes to running, so I never bother with music, but I was tempted to try out tech that would measure my performance in some way.
This paper doesn't really cover that, instead looking into how to improve the social characteristics of exertion activities. Normally, I would run by myself, and it really would be more of a run than a jog. So, I agree that jogging with others increases the length, speed, and distance of a run since when running by myself, I tend to wear myself out quicker due to a lack of pacing ability.
What I liked most after reading this paper was the fact that there is quite a bit of research in the field of exertion, a term for physical activity that I hadn't even known of prior. In addition, I liked the idea that people could run "together" despite differences not only in locations, but in running abilities. As was stated in the paper, previous studies have shown that social interactions improve the effects of physical activities. Today in America, this research is important in combating obesity. Technology has made lives easier and lazier. Although exertion games may make physical activities seem easier by adding that social aspect, there is an observable correlation that the actual physical activity is done longer, better, and with greater frequency for many people when done socially. Since the work in this paper still looks to be preliminary, the results gleaned from the test runs show good promise for future research. Even so, I would have liked to see more runs with more participants in other geographic locations tested. Regardless, I'm very eager to see what comes from such research. It'd be pretty awesome to have a totally interactive virtual image of jogging partners running side by side when in actuality an ocean or two spans the distance between the joggers.

Ethnography: Initial Week

Group Members:
Daniel Aninag
Xandrix Baluyot
Will Hausman
Jonathan Wiese


Preconceptions: 
Honestly, I thought the idea of Muggle Quidditch, as it is referred to on their student activities site, was silly. I didn't think it would be very entertaining to watch or play since no actual flying would be involved. Quidditch seemed like an imitation of various other sports, and without the magic, I didn't see why one would choose it over any other. Also, I thought everyone on the team would be a die hard Harry Potter fan who would constantly quote from the stories.

First Encounter: 
I realized that, for the most part, the students on the Quidditch team were just like anyone else taking classes at A&M. They were friendly, spirited, and really enjoyed what they were doing. None of the ones I came across seemed so obsessed with Harry Potter, and I found that the majority were quite athletic. Quidditch is a demanding sport, especially for the positions of seekers and snitch. A lot of continuous running and sprinting is required to be an effective snitch and seeker. I was only able to attend one event this week, but so far I am actually quite excited to be doing my ethnography on the A&M Quidditch Team.

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Paper Reading # 5: A Framework for Robust and Flexible Handling of Inputs with Uncertainty

Reference Information: A Framework for Robust and Flexible Handling of Inputs with Uncertainty by Julia Schwarz, Scott E. Hudson, Jennifer Mankoff, and Andrew D. Wilson.
UIST 2010 New York, New York. 

Author Bios: Julia Schwarz is pursuing a PhD at Carnegie Mellon University.

Scott Hudson earned a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Colorado. He is currently a Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institue at Carnegie Mellon University.

Steven M. Drucker is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research.

Jennifer Mankoff earned her PhD in Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is an Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Andrew Wilson earned a Bachelor's degree from Cornell University and both his Master's and PhD from the MIT Media Lab. He is now a Senior Researcher for Microsoft.


Summary

• Hypothesis: Handling uncertain inputs, such as approximations via pen/touch, well will lead to better human computer interactions. 
• Methods: Six case studies were conducted to test the framework.
• Results: Overall, the studies showed that the framework was flexible, could interpret multiple inputs, and could handle such inputs robustly. 
• Contents: This paper tells of a lack of correct handling of uncertain input. It also compares conventional input with uncertain input. After detailing their framework, the authors explain the six case studies. The first three case studies focused on improvement of touch interaction through smart window resizing, ambiguous and remote sliders, and tiny buttons. Case studies four and five were for smarter text entry, while the final study looked into an improved GUI for the motor-impaired. Below is a picture of touch input being handled by the framework: 

Discussion
Though I do think a flexible handling of inputs is important, I did not find this paper to be particularly appealing. It was interesting to note, however, that the authors opted to include a test involving GUI for the motor-impaired. I think that in today's society, disabilities are too often overlooked and shrugged off. To me, developing tools for those with impairments can help create a better understanding of disabilities. That in turn would allow better technologies to be made with the purpose of reducing or even eliminating the disabilities.