Abstract:

Great interfaces take the tool out of the task; the tool should be peripheral. Should new interfaces on thermostats, electrical light bulbs, clothes irons, and phones hide their capabilities, mimicking physical interfaces?  But when computer enhancements break the physical metaphor we are surprised and struggle to learn new tricks or reboot the system to get to a familiar place. 

We find that in a social context, computers can either be the focus (as in computer games) or be most useful when we don’t notice them much. This talk will frame the Considerate System stance of social feedback to a user.  We will describe results from a variety of Considerate Research projects with examples, including systems supporting people in audio conference-call communication, TV interactions, saving energy in the Sustainability Base Leeds Platinum building, and considerate mobile phone reactions.

We will show how peripheral feedback that was hardly noticeable was the key to improving conversations. Our experiments reveal that subtle/peripheral feedback can also reduce the impact of extraneous noise on conversations, make people more aware of who is in the conversation and even who is speaking. Considerate Audio Mediating Oracle (CAMEO) seeks to sense communication problems, and frame and respond to them in considerate ways. Such peripheral feedback can come as advisory help or assistive actions, to make the most of the small-interaction bandwidth that should define peripheral interfaces.

In working towards considerate systems, we are building CAMEO and other technology into a cyberphysical meeting-support system. This ambient social feedback system includes social responses that take into account environmental sensing, interactive TV, and physical rewards.  We conclude that all interactions with people in the physical world require an appreciation that they are in a social environment and engagement. 

Speaker's bio:

Ted Selker is director of Considerate Systems Research at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, where he has also been helping develop the campus’ research mission.  He is well known as a creator and tester of new scenarios for working with computing systems.  Ted spent ten years as an associate Professor at the MIT Media Laboratory where he created the Context Aware Computing group, co-directed the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, and directed the Counter Intelligence/Industrial Design Intelligence/Kitchen of the Future/ Product Design of the Future Project. His work is noted for creating demonstrations of a more considerate world in which intentions are recognized and respected in complex domains, such as kitchens, cars, on phones, and in email. Ted’s work takes the form of prototyping concept products supported by cognitive science research.

His successes at targeted product creation and enhancement earned him the role of IBM Fellow and Director of User Systems Ergonomics Research. He has also served as a consulting professor at Stanford University, taught at Hampshire, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Brown University, and worked at Xerox PARC and Atari Research Labs.

Ted's innovation has been responsible for profitable and award-winning products, ranging from notebook computers to operating systems. For example, his design of the TrackPoint in-keyboard pointing device is used in many notebook computers; his visualizations have made impacts ranging from improving the performance of the PowerPC to the usability OS/2 ThinkPad setup, to Google maps; his adaptive help system has been the basis of products as well.   Ted’s work has resulted in numerous awards, patents, and papers and has often been featured in the press.  Ted was co-recipient of the Computer Science Policy Leader Award for Scientific American 50 in 2004, the American Association for People with Disabilities Thomas Paine Award for his work on voting technology in 2006, and the Telluride Tech fest award in 2008.

Feel free to contact Tim Merritt for questions regarding the event.

Best regards,

Tim Merritt, PhD
Assistant Professor
Aarhus School of Architecture
Nørreport 20
DK-8000 Aarhus C
t:+45 4244 2899
timothy.merritt@aarch.dk
Reform.aarch.dk
ixd.net