Browsing by Author "Greenberg, Saul"
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Item Open Access A visual programming language for live video sonification(2008) Diaz-Marino, Roberto Arturo; Greenberg, SaulItem Open Access Adapting the Locales Framework for Heuristic Evaluation of Groupware(1999-08-11) Greenberg, Saul; Fitzpatrick, Geraldine; Gutwin, Carl; Kaplan, SimonHeuristic evaluation is a rapid, cheap and effective way for identifying usability problems in single user systems. However, current heuristics do not provide guidance for discovering problems specific to groupware usability. In this paper, we take the Locales Framework and restate it as heuristics appropriate for evaluating groupware. These are: 1) Provide locales; 2) Provide awareness within locales; 3) Allow individual views; 4) Allow people to manage and stay aware of their evolving interactions; 5) Provide a way to organize and relate locales to one another. To see if these new heuristics are useful in practise, we used them to inspect the interface of Teamwave Workplace, a commercial groupware product. We were successful at identifying the strengths of Teamwave as well as both major and minor interface problems.Item Metadata only ADAPTIVE PERSONALIZED INTERFACES - A QUESTION OF VIABILITY(1984-04-01) Greenberg, Saul; Witten, Ian H.It is widely accepted that interfaces between computers and users should differ to accommodate individual, or group, needs. One method of "personalizing" an interface is to have the system form a limited model of the user and employ it to fashion the dialogue to his needs. Unfortunately, little is known about the effect of adaptation on the man/machine interface. Although obvious advantages accrue from "personalized" interfaces, there are also obvious disadvantages to presenting users with a changing, adapting, and perhaps apparently inconsistent interface. The goal of this work is to determine the viability of an adaptive interface through a human factor pilot study of a simple, specially-designed, interactive computer system. The system uses menu-driven selection to retrieve entries from a large ordered telephone directory. This simple task has several advantages: it is a realistic application area for interactive computers; plausible adaptive modeling methods exist and have been studied theoretically; and previous work has determined the best way to display the menus to users. The results of this empirical study support the use of adaptive user modeling. In the (admittedly highly constrained) example system, a computer interface can indeed adapt successfully to every user. Although it does not necessarily generalize to other user interfaces, the result supplies evidence to refute published objections to adaptive user modeling in general.Item Open Access AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMPUTER SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE WORK(1991-03-01) Greenberg, SaulComputer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) is a new multi-disciplinary field with roots in many disciplines. Due to the area's youth and diversity, few specialized books or journals are available, and articles are scattered amongst diverse journals, proceedings and technical reports. Building a CSCW reference library is particularly demanding, for it is difficult for the new researcher to discover relevant documents. To aid this task, this report compiles, lists and annotates some of the current research in computer supported cooperative work into a bibliography. Over 300 references are included.Item Metadata only Application Programming Interface (API) for the Haptic Tabletop Puck(5th Annual Students’ Union Undergraduate Research Symposium, 2010) Ledo, David; Marquardt, Nicolai; Nacenta, Miguel A.; Greenberg, SaulItem Metadata only Applying geocaching principles to site-based citizen science and eliciting reactions via a technology probe(Springer, 2015) Dunlap, Matthew A.; Tang, Anthony Hoi Tin; Greenberg, SaulSite-based citizen science occurs when volunteers work with scientists to collect data at particular field locations. The benefit is greater data collection at lesser cost. Yet difficulties exist. We developed ScienceCaching, a prototype citizen science aid designed to mitigate four specific problems by applying aspects from another thriving location-based activity: geocaching as enabled by mobile devices. Specifically, to ease problems in data collection, ScienceCaching treats sites as geocaches: Volunteers find sites opportunistically via geocaching methods and use equipment and other materials pre-stored in cache containers. To ease problems in data validation, ScienceCaching flags outlier data as it is entered so that on-site volunteers can be immediately check and correct data. Additionally, other volunteers are directed to that site at a later time for further readings that provide data redundancy. To ease volunteer training, ScienceCaching directs volunteers to training sites on an as-needed basis, where they are taught and tested against known measures. To ease volunteer coordination, ScienceCaching automatically directs volunteers to particular sites of interest, and real-time communication between volunteers and scientist is enabled as needed. We developed ScienceCaching primarily as a technology probe—a working but quite limited system—to embody these ideas and to evaluate their worthiness by eliciting reactions from scientists involved in citizen science. Scientists saw many opportunities in using fixed location caches and geocaching techniques to aid citizen science. Yet they expanded the discussion. Amongst these, they emphasized practical concerns that must be addressed, and they argued that future systems should carefully consider the role of the social experience—both the “online” experience and the shared physical experience of visiting sites.Item Open Access Applying Geocaching to Mobile Citizen Science through Science Caching(2013-07-09) Dunlap, Matthew; Tang, Anthony; Greenberg, SaulCitizen science occurs when volunteers work with scientists to collect data at particular field locations. The benefit is greater data collection at lesser cost. Yet this type of citizen science has a variety of known problems. Of these, we focus on four specific problems that we believe can be mitigated by applying aspects from another thriving location-based activity: the geocaching treasure hunt as enabled by mobile devices. To flesh out this idea, we developed SCIENCE CACHING, a prototype mobile system and site preparation strategy that leverages concepts from geocaching. To ease problems in data collection, sites are treated as geocaches: volunteers find them opportunistically and use equipment and other materials pre-stored in caches. To ease problems in data validation, outlier data is flagged immediately on-site so that it can be immediately checked and corrected, and/or other volunteers are directed to that site for additional readings. To ease problems in training, volunteers visit training sites where they are both taught and tested against known measures. To ease problems in volunteer coordination, volunteers are automatically directed at particular sites of interest, and real-time communication enabled. We showed SCIENCE CACHING to citizen science experts, who confirmed the merit in applying geocaching and mobility to citizen science.Item Open Access Artifact awareness for distributed groups through screen sharing(2007) Tee, Kimberly Eleanor; Greenberg, SaulItem Open Access Artifact awareness through screen sharing for distributed groups(2008-06-16T22:25:36Z) Greenberg, Saul; Tee, Kimberly; Gutwin, CarlWhen co-located, people can see the artifacts that others are working on, which in turn enables casual interactions. To help distributed groups maintain mutual awareness of people’s electronic work artifacts, we designed and implemented an awareness tool that leverages screen sharing methods. People see portions of others' screens in miniature, can selectively raise larger views of a screen to get more detail, and can engage in remote pointing. People balance awareness with privacy by using several privacyprotection strategies built into the system. An evaluation with two groups using this system shows that people use it to: maintain awareness of what others are doing, project a certain image of themselves, monitor progress, coordinate joint tasks, determine others’ availability, and engage in serendipitous conversation and collaboration. While privacy was not a large concern for these groups, a theoretical analysis suggests that privacy risks may differ for other user communities.Item Open Access Artifact Buddy: The Video(2010-11-01T17:16:25Z) Greenberg, Saul; Voida, Stephen; Stehr, NathanIn this video, we present a system called Artifact Buddy, which is grounded on the premise that an unaltered Instant Messenger system can simultaneously provide both artifact awareness and interpersonal awareness. In Artifact Buddy, artifacts and people are treated the same way. An artifact – in this case a Microsoft Word document - becomes a first-class IM buddy and behaves like other buddies within a defined group. The artifact-as-buddy knows which people are interested in it and notifies these individuals about its state. Group members can interact with the artifact (and the rest of the group) through the IM system’s standard chat features. Critically, this is all done with a client-side helper application that exploits an existing and unaltered IM system. The IM system does all the heavy lifting: it does the underlying distributed systems work, communication, account control, and so on. For a group that already uses this common IM program, all that is required is that one group member install a helper application to run in the background. Additionally, because our approach takes advantage of the interaction mechanisms already well established by IM, group members can readily join and participate in collaborations without requiring that they learn how to use a completely new application. We built Artifact Buddy as a working technical illustration of how artifact awareness can be feasibly integrated into an existing instant messenger. The Artifact Buddy system implements a user interface and a wrapper around Microsoft’s Live™ Messenger service. We chose Live Messenger because it has functions typical of most IM services, as well as a public API; we use the open-source DotMSN library to access Live Messenger functions. Through this API, Artifact Buddy programmatically invokes activities such as inviting buddies, setting and receiving state information, sending and receiving chat messages, initiating and responding to file exchanges, and so on. Importantly, Artifact Buddy is not a distributed system. Rather, it is a local application that relies completely on the underlying capabilities of the Live Messenger IM infrastructure to connect and to distribute chat data, status messages and files to others. This video illustrates the key features of Artifact buddy. A companion paper [1] details its background, further features, and intellectual contributions. References [1] Greenberg, S., Voida, S., Stehr, N. and Tee, K. (2010) Artifacts as Instant Messaging Buddies. 11th Persistent Conversation Minitrack, Digital Media and Content, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences – HICSS’10, (Kauai, Hawaii, January 5-8),IEEE.Item Open Access Artifacts as Instant Messenger Buddies(2008) Greenberg, Saul; Stehr, Nathan; Tee, KimberlyArtifact awareness is one person’s up to the moment knowledge of the artifacts that other group members are working with. Such awareness contributes to the overall information necessary for fluid group coordination and interaction. Yet current systems treat artifact awareness quite differently from the interpersonal awareness of group members using the artifact. Our approach differs. We exploit commercial Instant Messengers (IMs) for artifact awareness, where we treat an artifact – such as a document – as a 1st class buddy. As a person uses the artifact, changes are triggered in the artifact’s online, idle and offline state. Further information about artifact events is published to the IM’s ‘display name’ or ‘personal message’ field. Important artifact activities – such as major version updates – are delivered as chat messages. Others can engage in a chat ‘dialog’ with the artifact that includes directives to receive and transmit artifact versions. The group’s conversation around that artifact is also recorded as part of the chat history.Item Open Access Astral: Prototyping Mobile and IoT Interactive Behaviours via Streaming and Input Remapping(2018-07) Ledo, David; Vermeulen, Jo; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Greenberg, Saul; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Boring, SebastianWe present Astral, a prototyping tool for mobile and Internet of Things interactive behaviours that streams selected desktop display contents onto mobile devices (smartphones and smartwatches) and remaps mobile sensor data into desktop input events (i.e., keyboard and mouse events). Interactive devices such as mobile phones, watches, and smart objects, offer new opportunities for interaction design– yet prototyping their interactive behaviour remains an implementation challenge. Additionally, current tools often focus on systems responding after an action takes place as opposed to while the action takes place. With Astral, designers can rapidly author interactive prototypes live on mobile devices through familiar desktop applications. Designers can also customize input mappings using easing functions to author, fine-tune and assess rich outputs. We demonstrate the expressiveness of Astral through a set of prototyping scenarios with novel and replicated examples from past literature which reflect how the system might support and empower designers throughout the design process.Item Open Access Asymmetry in Media Spaces(2008) Greenberg, Saul; Voida, Amy; Voida, Stephen; He, Helen AiIn any collaborative system, there are symmetries and asymmetries present in both the design of the technology and in the ways that technology is appropriated. In typical CSCW research and development, however, there seems to be more focus on supporting and fostering the symmetries than the asymmetries. Throughout more than 20 years of media space research, for example, there has been a recurrent theme - researchers pursuing increased symmetry, whether achieved through technical or social means. The research literature on the use of contemporary awareness systems, in contrast, displays little if any of this emphasis on symmetrical use; indeed, this body of research occasionally highlights the perceived value of asymmetry. In this paper, we unpack the different forms of asymmetry present in both media spaces and contemporary awareness systems. We argue that just as asymmetry has been demonstrated to have value in contemporary awareness systems, so might asymmetry have value in CSCW research system development, as well. To illustrate, we present a media space that emphasizes and embodies multiple forms of asymmetry and does so in response to the unique needs of a particular work context.Item Open Access Automated Image Recognition for Wildlife Camera Traps: Making it Work for You(2020-01-12) Greenberg, SaulYou have likely heard about or read articles that apply automated image recognition to wildlife camera trap images. The basic idea is that the image recognition system will automatically analyze your images to locate and classify the wildlife species within them. But before you jump on the bandwagon, here are a few things you should know about.Item Open Access Avalanche Beacon Parks: Skill Development and Group Coordination in a Technological Training Ground(2015-05-28) Desjardins, Audrey; Greenberg, Saul; Wakkary, Ron; Hambelton, JeffHigh-risk outdoor recreation has been gaining interest around the world in the past years. While those activities allow their enthusiasts to reach unprecedented levels of adrenaline and adventure, they also contain risks and require specific training (in part technological). In particular, its participants must be ready to react efficiently during an emergency or in response to an accident. Technological training grounds can simulate particular contexts and emergency situations as a place for recreationists to train and practice. In this paper, we use the practice of avalanche companion rescue as a case study to explore how technological training grounds support recreationist training. Our results offer insights into how avalanche beacon training parks support skill development and team coordination training. We also present high-level strategies to orient the design of technological training grounds beyond avalanche companion rescue.Item Open Access AVOIDING INTERFERENCE THROUGH TRANSLUCENT INTERFACE COMPONENTS IN SINGLE DISPLAY GROUPWARE(2000-12-06) Zanella, Ana; Greenberg, SaulOur research concerns the design of interface components tailored for single display groupware (SDG) where multiple co-located people, each with their own input device, interact over a single shared display. In particular, we are concerned with 'interference' effects, where one person's raising of an interface component (e.g., an menu) can impede another's view and interaction on the shared screen. Our solution uses translucent interface components, where others can see through the obstructing component and continue their work underneath it. Our in-progress evaluation suggests this design lessens interference effects.Item Open Access BALANCING PRIVACY AND AWARENESS FOR TELECOMMUTERS USING BLUR FILTRATION(2003-02-14) Neustaedter, Carman; Greenberg, Saul; Boyle, MichaelAlways-on video provides rich awareness for co-workers separated by distance, yet it has the potential to threaten privacy as sensitive details may be broadcast to others. This threat increases for telecommuters who work at home and connect to office-based colleagues using video. One technique for balancing privacy and awareness is blur filtration, which blurs video to hide sensitive details while still giving the viewer a sense of what is going on. While other researchers found that blur filtration mitigates privacy concerns in low-risk office settings, we do not know if it works for riskier situations that can occur in telecommuting settings. Using a controlled experiment, we evaluated blur filtration for its effectiveness in balancing privacy with awareness for typical home situations faced by telecommuters. Participants viewed five video scenes containing a telecommuter at ten levels of blur, where scenes ranged from little to extreme privacy risk. They then answered awareness and privacy questions about these scenes. Our results show that blur filtration is only able to balance privacy with awareness for mundane home scenes. The implication is that blur filtration by itself does not suffice for privacy protection in video-based telecommuting situations; other privacy-protecting strategies are required.Item Open Access Balancing privacy and awareness of home media spaces(2003) Neustaedter, Carman Gerard; Greenberg, SaulItem Open Access BEYOND THE 'BACK' BUTTON: ISSUES OF PAGE REPRESENTATIONAND ORGANISATION IN GRAPHICAL WEB NAVIGATION TOOLS(1999-04-01) Cockburn, Andy; Greenberg, SaulAlthough the 'Back' button is good for revisiting very recently seen pages on the world-wide web, its recency and stack-based model makes it inefficent for navigating back to distant pages. The limitations of 'Back' have motivated researchers and developers to investigate graphical aids for web browsing. This paper examines the design and usability issues in two fundamental questions that all graphical tools for web-navigation must address: first, how can individual pages be represented to best support page identification?; and second, what display organisation schemes can be used to enhance the visualisation of large sets of previously visited pages? Our 'webView' graphical browsing system, which interacts with unaltered versions of Netscape Navigator, demonstrates new interface techniques for page representation and display organisation. WebView's page identification techniques included zoomable thumbnail images and a 'dogears' metaphor that offers a lightweight mechanism for bookmarking. Its display is organised using an integrated hybrid of three techniques: 'hub-and-spoke', which models the user's navigation within a site; 'site-maps', which model navigation between sites; and temporal organisation, which provides a recency ordered list of the visited sites.Item Open Access Body-centric interaction with a screen-based handheld device(2012) Chen, Xiang (Anthony); Greenberg, Saul; Levy, Richard M.Modern mobile devices rely on the screen as a primary input modality. Yet the small screen real-estate limits interaction possibilities, motivating researchers to explore alternate input techniques. Within this arena, this thesis explores Body-Centric Interaction (BCI), specifically in the context of Using a Screen-based Handheld Device. In particular, BCI creates a class of interaction techniques that allows a person to position/orient her mobile device to navigate and manipulate digital contents anchored in the space on and around the body. The research methodology consists of an iterative process of bottom-up prototyping, generalizing recurring design themes, reflecting on these themes and on related work, and producing new designs as a consequence. As a result, this thesis contributes a new design direction for interacting with mobile digital contents where the paradigm shifts from the device's screen to the user's body. A class of interaction techniques, delivered as a set of reusable design examples and three recurring design themes, articulate how this new design direction can be realized, what new experience it can offer, and what issues and challenges we need to address.