Browsing by Author "Oehlberg, Lora"

Now showing 1 - 19 of 19
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    API Deprecation: A Retrospective Analysis and Method for Detecting Deprecated API Usages in Code Examples on the Web
    (2016-02-03) Zhou, Jing; Walker, Robert; Oehlberg, Lora; Krishnamurthy, Diwakar
    Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) can get deprecated over time, to indicate that they are obsolete, dangerous, and/or to be eliminated in future versions. This thesis ad- dresses two problems involving API deprecation. API deprecation has not been systematically studied so far. We empirically study how API deprecation has been used in 26 open source Java systems. We find that API dep- recation seems to be underused and not enough information is provided to help users via deprecation messages. More than 40% of all deprecated APIs were removed, most of which were removed during transitions to major releases. A developer may waste valuable time consulting code examples on the web containing deprecated API usages. A version sensitive framework was proposed to detect deprecated API usages in code examples on the web and a prototype tool based on this framework was implemented. Our evaluation of this tool shows that it works fairly well.
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    Creating an Accessible Microtonal System
    (2022-01-28) Iafelice, Julian Eric Joseph; Welling, M. Joelle; Bell, Allan Gordon; Oehlberg, Lora
    The purpose of this research is to devise a theoretical system with an alternate division of the octave that includes all the necessary material such that a performer or composer could utilize this system efficiently and intuitively. For the purposes of this project, the system will be applied to the cello, as its rich timbre and continuous pitch control make it an optimal choice. While there has been significant research in the field of microtonality and octave division, the field is extremely widespread and therefore difficult to unify, and subsequently difficult to transfer knowledge intuitively. This is in large part due to the fact that the theory and notation behind this previous research typically involves bending the current western system to fit the purposes of a new system, rather than creating a bespoke theoretical and notational system optimized for its own purpose. For the purposes of this research, the octave will be divided into sixteen equal steps. A principal reason for this choice is that this division will preserve the traditional minor third, an interval musicians will already be familiar with, and divides it into four parts rather than its usual four, a technique I have adapted from musician Jacob Collier. Included in this complete system is a manual for the instruction of a potential user, which includes a theoretical exploration of the octave in sixteen divisions, instructions on how to prepare the cello, and novel notation for writing the pitches. The manual also includes etudes to aid a performer in learning the system. To further aid, recordings of the etudes are also included, as well as a patch in the Max software capable of realizing pitches within the octave of sixteen divisions.
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    Critiquing Physical Prototypes for a Remote Audience
    (2017) Mok, Terrance; Oehlberg, Lora; Tang, Tony; Pexman, Penelope
    I present an observational study of physical prototype critique that highlights some of the challenges of communicating physical behaviors and materiality at a distance. Geographically distributed open hardware communities often conduct user feedback and peer critique sessions via video conference. However, people have difficulty using current video conferencing tools to demonstrate and critique physical designs. To examine the challenges of remote critique, I conducted an observational lab study in which participants critiqued pairs of physical prototypes (prosthetic hands) for a face-to-face or remote collaborator. In both conditions, participants’ material experiences were an important part of their critique, however their attention was divided between interacting with the prototype and finding strategies to communicate ‘invisible’ features. Based on my findings, I propose design implications for remote collaboration tools that support the sharing of material experiences and prototype critique.
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    Design and Testing of an Auditory Graphics Display for the Visually Impaired
    (2016) Masternak, Christopher; Goldsmith, Peter; Oehlberg, Lora; Nowicki, Ed; Yanushkevich, Svetlana; Malik, Om; Goldsmith, Peter
    The main objective of this thesis is to quantify and compare the relative accuracy of different auditory rendering schemes. These schemes are used in a visual-to-auditory sensory substitution device that renders graphical objects as sound. The device is portable, as it only requires a tablet, stylus and headphones. Current auditory displays perform a horizontal sweep of an image and produce sounds for each column of pixels, with pixel height represented by pitch and brightness represented by loudness. This approach is noisy, has low resolution, and is difficult to interpret. We propose a more efficient encoding in which lines, curves, and shapes are traced out in time by a cursor whose position is represented by sound. This method also provides real-time auditory feedback to the blind user as he draws, thus providing a training mechanism that maps auditory cues to kinaesthetic cues. Different auditory schemes are used to represent the position of the moving stylus or cursor. We compare their relative performance quantitatively using such metrics as perceived position, size, and aspect ratio of sound-rendered points, lines and ellipses. In contrast, previous research on auditory rendering schemes has been more qualitative in nature.
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    Design of Anthropomorphic Interfaces for Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction
    (2023-01) Wei, Wei; Sharlin, Ehud; Chen, Zhangxing; Sharlin, Ehud; Oehlberg, Lora; Somanath, Sowmya
    Autonomous Vehicle (AV) technology promises to revolutionize human life. The promise of AVs includes reduced highway congestion, more efficient energy usage, and cheaper goods and services. However, without careful design, removing human drivers from vehicles will eliminate the natural communication channels which enable pedestrians to navigate safely. This thesis aims to design, present, and study anthropomorphic interfaces for autonomous vehicles, with the objective of enabling AVs to communicate with pedestrians through non-verbal cues. Non-verbal human communication is vital in human relationships. People use non-verbal communication when speech is impractical, such as when interacting with vehicles. When looking into ways in which AVs can use non-verbal communication to interact with pedestrians, we were inspired by the prospect of using anthropomorphic interfaces. This concept is well explored in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) but has not been investigated in the context of AVs. For this thesis, we explored the design of anthropomorphic interfaces for autonomous vehicles. First, we proposed three types of anthropomorphic interfaces for AVs: facial expressions, hand gestures, and humanoid torsos. We developed a design space for each category using sketches and a low-fi prototype. Then, to research the benefits and limitations of anthropomorphic AVs, we implemented our AV interfaces in a Virtual Reality (VR) environment and developed two testbeds to evaluate their feasibility and scalability. Finally, we conducted two studies using the two testbeds. We investigated the study results using immersive analytics alongside traditional methods and revealed that anthropomorphic AVs could be helpful in AV-pedestrian interaction when designed by specific guidelines. Since we studied anthropomorphic AVs in VR, we were interested in the possibilities of analyzing the data of our study in an immersive environment. We designed a VR prototype specifically to analyze the data collected from the anthropomorphic AV study. The prototype provided basic immersive analytics features for the AV study data. We conducted an expert session with two domain experts to evaluate our immersive analytics prototype. The study contributed insights into the opportunities and challenges of utilizing immersive analytics to analyze AV studies.
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    Efficient Extension of a Software Analysis Framework to Additional Languages
    (2023-07) Soltanpour, Shahryar; Walker, Robert James; Aycock, John; Oehlberg, Lora
    In the current era of software development, multi-language codebases are common, and change propagation in these codebases is challenging. The existing change propagation tool ModCP is a solution that can assist software developers with propagating changes across several languages, but only one at a time. However, ModCP has some architectural problems in that make supporting new languages hard to develop and maintain for a long time. In addition, supporting change propagation across code snippets consisting of a programming language embedded inside a different programming language would be a useful feature for ModCP. To achieve this, we must detect the embedded code snippets in a code being analyzed by ModCP. In this thesis, we develop a new, more efficient architecture for ModCP, involving a single abstract model that each language extends for its usage, resulting in complete isolation between language results. We compare our approach with a baseline version that uses the same, concrete model for all languages and adds new models when necessary. Our approach reduces code complexity and development time and makes code more compatible with best practices of development compared to the baseline. Moreover, we design a system for ModCP to guess and validate the programming language used in code snippets, based on the initial detection of keywords, as input to execute change propagation for multi-language codes embedded inside each other. We compare our keyword detection approach with existing deep learning and brute force approaches and show that our method is the best choice if accuracy, performance, and scalability are needed simultaneously.
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    Evaluation Strategies for HCI Toolkit Research
    (2017-09-27) Ledo, David; Houben, Steven; Vermeulen, Jo; Marquardt, Nicolai; Oehlberg, Lora; Greenberg, Saul
    Toolkit research plays an important role in the field of HCI, as it can heavily influence both the design and implementation of interactive systems. For publication, the HCI community typically expects that research to include an evaluation component. The problem is that toolkit evaluation is challenging, as it is often unclear what ‘evaluating’ a toolkit means and what methods are appropriate. To address this problem, we analyzed 68 published toolkit papers. From that analysis, we provide an overview of, reflection on, and discussion of evaluation methods for toolkit contributions. We identify and discuss the value of four toolkit evaluation strategies, including the associated techniques each employs. We offer a categorization of evaluation strategies for toolkit researchers, along with a discussion of the value, potential biases, and trade-offs associated with each strategy.
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    Experiences of Autistic Twitch Livestreamers: "I have made easily the most meaningful and impactful relationships"
    (ACM, 2023-10-22) Mok, Terrance; Tang, Anthony; McCrimmon, Adam; Oehlberg, Lora
    We present perspectives from 10 autistic Twitch streamers regarding their experiences as livestreamers and how autism uniquely colors their experiences. Livestreaming offers a social online experience distinct from in-person, face-to-face communication, where autistic people tend to encounter challenges. Our reflexive thematic analysis of interviews with 10 participants showcases autistic livestreamers’ perspectives in their own words. Our findings center on the importance of having streamers establishing connections with other, sharing autistic identities, controlling a space for social interaction, personal growth, and accessibility challenges. In our discussion, we highlight the crucial value of having a medium for autistic representation, as well as design opportunities for streaming platforms to onboard autistic livestreamers and to facilitate livestreamers communication with their audience.
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    Exploring Notifications with Pepper’s Ghost Illusion
    (2018-01) Pratte, Sydney Anne; Maurer, Frank; Oehlberg, Lora; Wong, Nelson
    Today people are living a fast-paced environment with many tasks trying to grab our attention leading to multitasking and rapid task switching. Notifications and pop-ups is an effective method of grabbing user’s visual attention and helping maintain information awareness. Unfortunately, the current method of notifications has also been considered to be a disruption during tasks. In this work, I explore a different method of gaining user’s visual attention with Pepper’s Ghost optical illusion – called the Acquario display. Through a user study the reaction time and user preference was evaluated to understand the benefits and drawbacks of using Pepper’s Ghost to display pop-up information during a typing task. Results from the pre- and post-study interviews showed that participants liked Pepper’s Ghost Illusion as a notification application. The illusion provided a less invasive means of notifying by appearing overlaid on the screen and its transparent quality. They also reported that the overlay had legibility issues that need addressing. The study showed that there was no statistical significant difference in the participants words per minute or in reaction time. My contributions include a hardware prototype of a desktop display using the Pepper’s Ghost Illusion, a study methodology for evaluation notifications with Pepper’s Ghost and an evaluation of using this technique.
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    FlavourFrame: Visualizing Tasting Experiences
    (ACM UIST Posters, 2023-10-29) Anderson, Lauryn; Oehlberg, Lora; Willett, Wesley
    We present FlavourFrame, a canvas-based app that helps tasters capture and visualize their perceptions during mindful tasting experiences. Taste perceptions are difficult to document because they are subjective, multisensory, and ephemeral; and everyday people have limited dedicated vocabulary to describe such experiences. Our customizable tool is designed to help novice and experienced tasters structure and record tasting experiences. FlavourFrame superimposes visual and text layers to personalize visual and word- based expression of flavour experience. Through autoethnographic reflections, we generated sample data and identified strengths and limitations of the prototype.
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    GEOPHYS: Design and Fabrication of Geospatial Physicalizations
    (2021-07-14) Djavaherpour, Hessam; Samavati, Faramarz F.; Levy, Richard M.; Oehlberg, Lora; Dawson, Peter
    Geospatial datasets are complex, difficult to understand, and hard to visualize. Although web maps have provided visualization of geospatial datasets using computer-generated 2D maps, such visualizations significantly deal with misinterpretations of areas and distances due to the mapping distortions. Digital Earth (DE) is an alternative solution for overcoming 2D map distortions and integrating various geospatial datasets. However, virtual 3D models of the Earth still suffer from common issues caused by projecting 3D scenes to 2D screens, such as losing one spatial dimension and inaccessibility for direct manual interaction. By providing tactile exploration and physical interaction, physical models facilitate cognition and understanding of data. This thesis argues that using 3D physical models supporting visualizations of geospatial datasets at different scales and resolutions can address challenges related to understanding and analyzing such datasets. To shed light on this hypothesis, we introduce a framework, GEOPHYS, to make tangible multi-resolution/multi-scale representations of geospatial data. Furthermore, GEOPHYS introduces a comprehensive, accurate, and repeatable physical rendering method for various applications and visualization scenarios, using accessible digital fabrication tools. A pipeline forms the core methodology of this thesis, which consists of data transformation, digital design, digital fabrication, evaluation, and the introduction of the final framework. In this thesis, the design and fabrication stages work hand-in-hand to transform the conceptual form into a visual representation, investigate the model for its manufacturability, and bring it into the physical world. Evaluations in the context of this thesis are technology-centred and human-centred. This thesis contributes to geovisualization and physicalization by introducing a method to visualize multi-resolution geospatial datasets in Large Areas, a physical rendering approach for creating landscape models, and a tactile representation of the RADAR imagery to facilitate the sea-ice travel for Inuit. We also provide an in-depth review of various methods by which physicalizations can be physically rendered. The results of our studies prove that models made using GEOPHYS are beneficial learning tools capable of creating interest and engagement to explore geospatial concepts.
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    Leveraging Neuroscience to Improve Haptic Rendering
    (2019-07-26) Kollannur, Sandeep Zechariah George; Chan, Sonny; Oehlberg, Lora; Peters, Ryan
    In the evolving world of virtual reality (VR), haptics plays an important role. Haptics enables individuals to feel and experience the virtual world and to immerse fully in the virtual environment. Haptics has a long history in which researchers have created various types of devices. Virtual reality brings in the need for highly portable and wearable devices which are limited in weight and grounding. Within the restrictive weight and size limitations of mobile and wearable devices limits the haptic rendering capabilities. This thesis attempts to overcome the limitations by developing a better understanding of the biology of touch via sensorimotor neuroscience to improve touch perception in virtual textures. In this research, we explore the receptor cells that encode touch information from mechanical stimuli and send them to the brain. Sensorimotor neuroscience explores the functional role of the different type of receptor cells in the human body. We use this biological perspective to create a classification of wearable haptic devices for the fingertip and the hand. The second part of the research explores the neuroscience concept of stochastic resonance that is proved to improve light touch sensation. We create a system comprising of hardware and software to evaluate the impact of stochastic resonance in a virtual texture discrimination task. I conclude this thesis by exploring the future directions of the research presented in this thesis and summarizing the two main contributions of this thesis: first is to develop a neuroscience-based classification of wearable haptic devices for the fingertip and the hand and second is to build a platform to evaluate the effect of mechanical SR in discriminating virtual textures.
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    Making despite Material Constraints with Augmented Reality-Mediated Prototyping
    (2017-09-28) Somanath, Sowmya; Oehlberg, Lora; Sharlin, Ehud
    Makers build physical interactive objects using programmable electronics. However, makers often must stop building when material resources (e.g., electronic components) are not immediately or easily available. In this paper, we envision Augmented Reality (AR)-mediated prototyping as a way for makers to continue building physical computing projects despite a lack of electronic components. AR-mediated prototyping enables makers to build, program, interact with, and iterate on physical computing projects that combine both real and stand-in virtual electronic components. We designed and implemented a technology probe, Polymorphic Cube (PMC), as an instantiation of our vision. We introduced PMC to twelve makers and asked them to build four simple lamp prototypes despite missing I/O components (push button, LED, light sensor, servo). Our results show that PMC helped participants prototype despite missing components, and highlighted how AR-mediated prototyping extends to exploring project ideas, tinkering with implementation, and making with others.
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    'Making' within Material, Cultural, and Emotional Constraints
    (2017) Somanath, Sowmya; Sharlin, Ehud; Costa Sousa, Mário; Oehlberg, Lora; Hughes, Janette; Parlac, Vera; Meruvia Pastor, Oscar
    The Maker Movement aims to democratize technological practices and promises many benefits for people including improved technical literacy, a means for self-expression and agency, and an opportunity to become more than consumers of technology. As part of the Maker Movement, people build hobbyist and utilitarian projects by themselves using programmable electronics (e.g., microcontroller, sensors, actuators) and software tools. While the Maker Movement is gaining momentum globally, some people are left out. Constraints such as material limitations, educational culture restrictions, and emotional or behavioral difficulties can often limit people from taking part in the Maker Movement. We refer to the systematic investigation of how diverse people respond to making-centered activities within constraints as an exploration of making within constraints. In this dissertation, we (1) study how people respond to creating physical objects by themselves within constraints and, (2) investigate how to design technology that can help makers within constraints. We conducted an observational study in an impoverished school in India and identified the students' challenges and their strategies for making within material and educational culture constraints. We conducted a second study with at-promise youth in Canada and identified a set of lessons learned to engage youth within emotional and behavioral constraints in making-centered activities. Leveraging our observations, we proposed Augmented Reality (AR)-mediated prototyping as a way to address material constraints. AR-mediated prototyping can help makers to build, program, interact with and iterate on physical computing projects that combine both real-world and stand-in virtual electronic components. We designed, implemented, and evaluated a technology probe, Polymorphic Cube (PMC), as an instance of our vision. Our results show that PMC helped participants prototype despite missing I/O electronic components, and highlighted how AR-mediated prototyping extends to exploring project ideas, tinkering with implementation, and making with others. Informed by our empirical and design explorations, we suggest a set of characteristics of constraints and implications for designing future technologies for makers within constraints. In the long-term, we hope that this research will inspire interaction designers to develop new tools that can help resolve constraints for making.
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    Medi, Social Human-Robot Interaction in Pediatric Health
    (2024-09-19) Aghel Manesh, Setareh; Sharlin, Ehud; Oehlberg, Lora; Cheatham, Michelle; Elhajj, Reda S.
    This research explores how we can help a person – particularly a child – in a real-world stressful situation, such as a medical procedure, cope with pain and anxiety by using an interactive, empathetic robot as a social companion. To demonstrate this, we designed and implemented behaviours for a humanoid robot called Medi through iterative prototyping, testing, and refining. We then tested Medi’s behaviours in situ during a blood draw procedure at Alberta Children’s Hospital: our goal (and thesis) was to see if Medi could help children overcome the stress and pain associated with the blood test and consequently improve their overall experience. Using a Wizard of Oz methodology, we had Medi engage the child in an affectionate conversation using physical and verbal interactions. Between the iterative design process and the testing at the hospital, we ran just under a hundred study sessions with 97 participants. We gathered and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data by collecting questionnaires and videotaping the sessions, where our results generally show that an empathetic interactive social robot such as Medi does indeed help children cope with pain and anxiety and improve their experience.
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    Stabilized Annotations for Mobile Remote Assistance
    (2016) Fakourfar, Omid; Tang, Anthony; Jacob, Christian; Oehlberg, Lora
    Recent mobile technology has provided new opportunities for creating remote assistance systems. However, mobile support systems present a particular challenge: both the camera and display are held by the user, leading to shaky video. When pointing or drawing annotations, this means that the desired target often moves, causing the gesture to lose its intended meaning. To address this problem, this thesis investigates an annotation stabilization technique, which allows annotations to stick to their intended location. I studied two different forms of annotation systems, with both tablets and head-mounted displays. To differentiate my work from the prior research, I considered a number of task factors that might influence system performance in remote assistance scenarios. My analysis suggests that stabilized annotations and head-mounted displays are only beneficial in certain situations. I conclude with reflections on system limitations and potential future work.
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    Supporting Self-Teaching, Hobbyist Musicians: Technology Design Guidelines for Developing Musical Literacy and Perception
    (2021-09-27) Hung, Michael Y-S; Oehlberg, Lora; Oehlberg, Lora; Bell, Adam; Jacob, Christian
    I propose a persona framework and five guidelines for designing interactive technology tools that help self-teaching, hobbyist musicians independently develop musical understanding by leveraging and augmenting their existing musical behaviour. Using perspectives from informal music education, self-directed learning, and the serious leisure perspective, I define 'self-teaching, hobbyist musicians' as self-directed, experiential learners who build musical understanding and skills in opportunistic, constructionist ways, primarily for leisure. However, self-directed music learning inevitably produces gaps in music theory understanding, affecting musical literacy and perception, which can overall increase the difficulty of picking up new musical knowledge and skills over time. Previous HCI-Music research focuses on motor skill acquisition or augmenting expressivity, while theory-teaching systems neglect practical musical behaviours, learning context, and practices in music pedagogy. To better inform this domain, I interviewed eight musicians to learn about their resources, strategies, and challenges in their idiosyncratic learning processes of music and music theory. Given my findings, this thesis contributes (1) a discussion of hobbyist musicians as technology users and a persona framework to guide design: "The user is a {musician} who learns {music theory competency} while doing {practical musical behaviour}"; and (2) guidelines for designing technology for self-teaching, hobbyist musicians. For each guideline, I offer and discuss speculative, concept sketches of example interactive tools. Finally, I discuss the limitations of the research presented in this thesis and opportunities for future work.
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    The Virtual Rehearsal Suite: Drama and Performance Approaches for Virtual Reality and Human-Computer Interaction
    (2024-05-14) McKendrick, Zachary E. R.; Finn, Patrick; Sharlin, Ehud; Munteanu, Cosmin; Oehlberg, Lora; Viczko, April; Ullyot, Michael
    This dissertation explores the intersection of Drama, virtual reality (VR), and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), examining their parallels and collective impact on shaping immersive digital experiences. Throughout our research, we ask: how can VR support traditional performance practices? And how can we leverage existing performance practices to support wholistic user engagement? From our interdisciplinary position we identify gaps in existing research and offer novel solutions and innovative frameworks for navigating and structuring experiences within VR. In pursuit of answers to our research questions, we contribute C1) Performance-Based Multimodal Methodological Approaches for HCI, and C2) A Demonstration of Interdisciplinary Possibilities to the landscape of HCI VR research. We propose a symbiotic relationship between the user's cognitive engagement and the digital environment's architectural and interaction design can be enhanced through the application of practices and principles from Drama and performance. The practical application of these theoretical constructs is showcased in C3) Thresholding Protocols for Digital State Change, and C4) The Virtual Rehearsal Suite (VRS), an immersive VR environment that supports solo performance training, demonstrating how Drama and performance methodologies can enhance the user's experience, offering tested perspectives and techniques that promote interaction, presence, and embodiment. Starting with our related works, we identify our interdisciplinary position with a foundation that draws from both the academic and artistic communities interested in VR as a domain, research, and performance tool. We then cast a wide net to understand the dimensions of virtual technologies and their impact on user experience with subsequent chapters investigating the layers of reality, immersion, embodiment, performance rituals, and thresholding concepts. Each chapter contributes to the identification of gaps and parallels across research domains and the discussion of how Drama and performance can elevate the understanding and advancement of VR and HCI systems. The dissertation concludes that the confluence of Drama and performance practice with Interaction Design holds the potential to shape the future aesthetics and experiential facets of virtual environments. The embrace of VR as both a tool and a medium for creative expression is positioned as a transformative leap forward in both HCI and Drama, heralding a new era of digital interaction that needs to embrace the full spectrum of human experience for success and longevity. Our work positions actors as interaction specialists, capable of existing in multiple realities at once and providing insightful reflections on their experiences in iterative processes. The VRS study demonstrates this ability, while emphasizing that virtual environments are not merely technological constructs but complex experiential spaces where the physical and digital converge, challenging traditional perceptions of reality. It highlights the importance of centralizing the user as key to creating compelling virtual experiences that con only be achieved through meticulously designed interactions that resonate with the user's sensory and cognitive faculties. Our study underscores the efficacy of VR in supporting actor training with minimal digital interventions, facilitating a seamless transition into and out of VR, enhancing focus during VR engagement, and addressing issues such as VR sickness. It highlights the centralization of the human element as the pivotal factor in VR creation, emphasizing that VR environments should cater to the nuanced spectrum of human emotions, behaviours, and social interactions.
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    User-defined Single-hand Microgestures
    (2017) Chan, Edwin; Maurer, Frank; Costa Sousa, Mario; Oehlberg, Lora
    Gestural interaction has become increasingly popular, as enabling technologies continue to transition from research to retail. The mobility of miniaturized (and invisible) technologies introduces new uses for gesture recognition. This thesis investigates single-hand microgestures (SHMGs), detailed gestures in a small interaction space. SHMGs are suitable for the mobile and discrete nature of interactions for ubiquitous computing. However, there is a lack of end-user input in the design of such gestures. We performed a user-elicitation study with 16 participants to determine their preferred gestures for a set of referents. We contribute an analysis of 1,632 gestures, the resulting gesture set, and prevalent conceptual themes amongst the elicited gestures. These themes provide a set of guidelines for gesture designers, while informing the designs of future studies. With the increase in hand-tracking and electronic devices in our surroundings, we see this as a starting point for designing gestures suitable to portable ubiquitous computing.