Tag: ui

False Web Memories

Can an interactive website produce false memories? Schlosser performed an intriguing experiment: She took 2 groups of people and had them check out 2 different web sites devoted to the same digital camera. 1 site included static pictures; the other was interactive, allowing users to play around with a virtual version of the product. Later, she tested them on their ability to recall details about the camera. She intentionally included details that were false, but sufficiently plausible that they might have been true. The result? The people who viewed the interactive demo of the camera were much more likely than the folks who’d only viewed static images to “remember” the false details as being present.

there is a lesson for compelling UIs in there somewhere. or maybe for mischief.

The Seoul of a New Machine

Rity is the ghost in the machine: an autonomous agent that can transfer itself into desktop computers, PDAs, servers and robotic avatars, and adapt and evolve like a genetic organism. As researchers go from place to place, they are captured and recognized by a network of cameras in the building, allowing Rity to follow them from computer to computer.The “sobot” can upload itself into a mobile robot — a simpler cousin of HanSaRam called MyBot — and follow Kuppuswamy from room to room on its servo-controlled wheels, fetching objects for the researcher with its mechanical arms. If it sees Kuppuswamy sit in front of his office PC, Rity can abandon MyBot like a husk and slip into the desktop machine, to better put itself at its human master’s disposal.

when i was in school, ai was all about embodiment. now we have a more fluid, body-snatching approach. an agent following you around, without being limited to one manifestation, is both very scifi and very interesting

Learning Gestures

Spent the last couple of weeks observing an elderly relative first purchase then use a digital camera for the first time. What stood out? The touch screen on the Sony T50. Why? Human motor skills depreciate over time and the soft keys are larger and less fiddly than anything than can be squeezed on the physical form factor. But the bonus? The speed at which a (relative) novice learnt and understood gesture based interaction – sliding her finger left and right, to navigate photos.

i hate (most) gadgets. now there seems to be one built around usability. interesting