Author: hj

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ROILA: RObot Interaction LAnguage

ROILA
ROILA

Omar Mubin, one of our PhD candidates, printed his book “ROILA: RObot Interaction LAnguage” last week. “… The mismatch between humans’ expectations and the abilities of interactive robots often results in frustration for the user. Palm Inc. faced a similar problem with handwriting recognition for their handheld computers. They invented Graffiti, an artificial alphabet, that was easy to learn and easy for the computer to recognize. Our Robot Interaction Language (ROILA) takes a similar approach by offering a speech recognition friendly artificial language that is easy to learn for humans and easy to understand for robots with an ultimate goal of outperforming natural language in terms of speech recognition accuracy…”.

To read more about his work, download the book [PDF, 3M].

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Theming WordPress for Your Showcases

Yesterday together with Mathias Funk, we organized a workshop for about 20 student at the department of Industrial Design, TU/e. The idea is to use WordPress as the content management system for making their portfolios or showcases. It was a 4-hour workshop, difficult for both us and the students. But after all, students got the idea and the workshop was well-received. We were exhausted though 🙂

Continue reading Theming WordPress for Your Showcases

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Sense Your Heart

By using a PPG system (photoplethysmograph), data from the heart beat can easily be obtained. Although the device is relatively simple, the design opportunities that are created are fast and as complex as the designer’s wishes. In the module “sense your heart”, master students created several very interesting ideas and prototypes. The goal of this module was to get a good understanding of the workings of the human heart and how this working can be monitored. Secondly a learning objective was to implement these measurements in a concept using a self-built Photoplethysmography sensor and corresponding software. This technology can be used for measuring the heart rate, which in our case was used to determine the heart-rate variability which can be an indicator for relaxation or arousal.

Continue reading Sense Your Heart

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Spotlight Navigation: “interactive controllers for the ubiquitous, invisible technological networks”

Spotlight navigation
Spotlight navigation

Erik Kogler, one of our bachelor students, designed a handheld projector based user interface for environments that are full of smart objects. “Spotlight Navigation at the TU/e can thus be said to arise from SOFIA’s need for interactive controllers for the ubiquitous, invisible technological networks that will surround the user (in this case in the home). When dealing with pervasive technology it is normally assumed that all manner of products will be able to share and collect information, even though they lack an interface capable of creating the connections to make this useful. … Spotlight Navigation device seems an ideal solution to this lack of interface as it can use any surface to create a vast and entirely flexible user-interface.”

Download the final report [PDF, 800+K]

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Semantic Resources: A tree to create awareness about domestic resource consumption.

Semantic Resources
Semantic Resources

Willem Willemsen, one of our master students, designed a decorative toy tree to create awareness about domestic resource consumption. “I chose this metaphor because trees are associated with the environment and the better you do the better your tree (representing the environment) gets. The size of the tree doesn’t only represent the environment, but also the user’s personal effort on reducing resource consumption. Plants are also something that people use a decorative objects in their houses, so the object wouldn’t be an alien object in-between the rest of the objects in the house. The way it works is that the user can build the tree with building blocks. These blocks have a light source inside them that will light up when a level is gained. Each time a level is gained the next block turns on until all blocks are turned on. When this happens the user can add a piece to the tree, and the level starts over again. This means that the system has no levelling limits and can keep growing indefinitely with enough pieces.”

Download the PDF [2M] for more details.

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A New Encounter with Alice

2011-JesseMeijersEtAL-ANewEncounterWithAlice
A New Encounter

Three of our first year students, Jesse Meijers, Marjolein Schets and Jim Steenbakker, did a nice project in the context of cultural computing. “The goal of the project was to create a new form of presence and user experience by turning the visitors sense of reality upside down through the use of modern technology. The rooms built for this project were based on scenes from the book `Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. We decided to build a new room. Our room is based on the scene where the tarts of the Queen of Hearts2 get stolen. The visitor will accidentally perform the theft. The rooms purpose is evoking a feeling of confusion. The room is an infinity mirror room which contradicts the visitor’s sense of reality, proportion and boundaries.”

[The final project report: “A New Encounter with Alice” 1.3M, PDF]

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Doormat is not just a doormat


Doormate
Doormate

Don Willems designed a doormat. The doormat is not just for wiping your feet, but also for lowering the electricity consumption. How does it do it? The doormat is at the same time a LED display that allows people to easily turn off devices when leaving the house as well as improving their energy consumption behavior by leaning from tailored coaching when coming in. Read the full report for more information [PDF, 3M]

From his report, “The Doormate is for wiping your feet and supporting lowering of electricity consumption. It does the latter by communicating information through an integrated LED display. It allows people to easily turn of devices when leaving the house as well as improving their energy consumption behavior by learning from tailored coaching when coming in. One could say the Doormate is addressing both the ‘consumer’ – making sure no money is wasted when not at home and the ‘citizen’ – contributing by environmental friendly behaviour – in people. Continue reading Doormat is not just a doormat

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Realities: Design manipulates the boundaries

On December 17, the faculty board visited the theme Realities. The following presentation was given to show:

  • Development of the theme over time
  • Participating members/groups
  • Vision & Ambition
  • Research (plans)
  • Education (plans)
  • Integration
  • Organizational structure, infrastructure (available + planned)

[DOWNLOAD|PDF, 3M]

Continue reading Realities: Design manipulates the boundaries

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Tangible Instant messaging

Tangible Instant Messaging
Tangible Instant Messaging

Sometimes the first year students surperize you with what they can do in their very first year. Pim Vellenga, Hessel Sieswerda and Niels Timessen challenged themselves with “one huge problem: how do you get the interactive onscreen user interface out of instant messaging experience.”  They designed a tea box that is integrated with messaging abilities for the elderly to communicate with their grandchildren. Read the report [PDF, 2M] for more.