Intro to Processing at Machine Project

Introduction to Processing - Machine Project

April 24, May 1, 8, 15
Sundays from 4-7pm.
*Instructor Name:* Krister Olsson

Course Description:* Processing is a programming language and
environment built for the media arts and design communities. It is
created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual
context and to serve as a software sketchbook. It is used by students,
artists, designers, architects, and researchers for learning,
prototyping, and production. More information on Processing can be found
at www.processing.org

What you'll need: *computer (laptops are nice). Windows or OSX. Let us know if you don't have a laptop, we have a couple extra at the gallery for student use.

*Registration Fee:* $250
*

Introduction to Processing - Machine Project

April 24, May 1, 8, 15
Sundays from 4-7pm.
*Instructor Name:* Krister Olsson

Course Description:* Processing is a programming language and
environment built for the media arts and design communities. It is
created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual
context and to serve as a software sketchbook. It is used by students,
artists, designers, architects, and researchers for learning,
prototyping, and production. More information on Processing can be found
at www.processing.org

What you'll need: *computer (laptops are nice). Windows or OSX. Let us know if you don't have a laptop, we have a couple extra at the gallery for student use.

*Registration Fee:* $250
*
*Week 1: Introduction*

The Processing Environment
Drawing to the Screen
Variables
Arithmetic
Conditional Statements

*Week 2: Interactivity I*

Mouse and Keyboard Input
Control Blocks (for, while, etc.)
Functions
Arrays and Objects

*Week 3: Interactivity II*

Event-driven Programs
Image Processing (Accessing the Pixel Buffer)
Basic 3D

*Week 4: Advanced Topics*

Threads
Processing and the Web
Accessing Java APIs (e.g., Sound)

CHI, 2005 - Special Interest Group: Tangible Interfaces for Children

This image is from a team project I have been working on with Stanford's MediaX program to create a doll which facilitates social interaction between pre-school children. The work has led me to helping to host a SIG at CHI 2005 with Oren Zuckerman, Allison Druin and Glenda Revelle.

The session will take place on Tuesday afternoon, 4/5, from 4:30-6 pm. If you are going to CHI, it would be great to see you there. If interested in making a short presentation, please drop an email to bolas at well.com.

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CHI, 2005 - Special Interest Group: Tangible Interfaces for Children

Oren Zuckerman, Allison Druin, Mark Bolas and Glenda Revelle would like to invite you to join our Special Interest Group, Tangible User Interfaces for Children, at HI 2005. This session will take place on Tuesday afternoon, 4/5, from :30-6 pm.

The agenda we are planning includes brief presentations by Oren, Allison, Mark and Glenda about tangible interface projects that we are currently working on. Then we would like to open it up for other participants to share their projects. Please e-mail bolas at well.com if you are interested in attending this SIG and have something you'd like to present.

After the brief project presentations, we will have a group discussion about issues involved in developing tangible interfaces for kids, including topics like the following:

- Advantages and disadvantages of tangible interfaces vs. traditional GUI interfaces. What are some of the factors, conditions, target users and so on that might make either tangible interfaces or traditional GUI interfaces more appropriate?

- What learning and/or entertainment domains might be the most appropriate for tangible interfaces?

- What has been your experience with some of the challenges in developing tangible interfaces, and how to address them?

If you have other discussion topics to suggest, please e-mail them to bolas at well.com and we will try to include them.

Thanks, and hope to see you in Portland!
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Mitchel Resnik Speaking At HMC Lecture "Creative Society"

Mitchel Resnick, associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory, will present his talk "Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society" at Harvey Mudd College on Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m. in Galileo Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

"In the 1980s, many people talked about the transition from the 'Industrial Society' to the 'Information Society,'" Resnick said. "In the 1990s, people began to talk about the 'Knowledge Society.' I prefer a different conception: the 'Creative Society.' As I see it, success in the future (for individuals, for communities, for companies, for nations as a whole) will be based not on how much we know, but on our ability to think and act creatively."

Resnick describes current educational practices as "woefully inadequate." In his talk, he will discuss new technologies and new educational initiatives developed specifically to help children learn to design, invent and express themselves creatively -- so that they are prepared for life in the Creative Society. The ultimate goal is a world full of creative people who are constantly inventing new opportunities for themselves and their communities.

Resnick's work at MIT explores how new technologies can help people learn new things in new ways. His research group developed the ideas underlying the LEGO Mindstorms robotics construction kit, and he has led the development of several projects designed to help people learn about complex systems and emergent phenomena. He co-founded the Computer Clubhouse project, an award-winning network of after-school learning centers for youth from under-served communities.

Resnick earned his B.A. in physics at Princeton University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science at MIT. He worked for five years as a science/technology journalist for Business Week magazine, and he has consulted around the world on the uses of computers in education. He is the author of the book "Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams" (1994), co-author of "Adventures in Modeling" (2001), and co-editor of "Constructionism in Practice" (1996).

He has taught courses with such "creative" titles as: Creative Learning through Programming, Design That Matters, Programming as an Everyday Activity for Everyone, Teens in a Technological Society, How to Learn (Almost) Anything, Systems and Self, and Tools for Thought. More information about his teaching and research is available at: http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/

The Dr. Bruce J. Nelson '74 Distinguished Speaker Series was created by Nelson's family to honor the memory of the late HMC alumnus. For more information about Bruce J. Nelson and the series, visit the Web site at: www.dof.hmc.edu/spkr/.

CSCW: Representations of Digital Identity

Representations of Digital Identity
URL :: http://sims.berkeley.edu/~dmb/cscw2004-identity/

CSCW Workshop: Saturday November 6, 2004 - Chicago
Position Paper Deadline: September 20, 2004 - cscw04-identity@googlegroups.com

The human body operates as a rich site for information. As we pass through the world, we give off information about cultural identity (ethnicity, sex, age, etc), social class, individual personality (through dress or physical alterations) and psychological state (through movement and tone of voice). These cues help others determine the appropriate modes of interaction with us. In computer-mediated communication (CMC), the performance of identity occurs not through direct experience of the body but within the constraints of digital representations constructed by interactive systems.

This workshop will address the many ways by which online presentations of self have been ­ and could be ­ constructed. In the absence of the body as a source of accountability and social legibility, individuals project a sense of self through multiple layers of mediation, including email addresses, graphic avatars, "friend lists," and results from search engines. How can we use the body in a mediated world? Or alternately, how can we promote rich modes of interaction that do not rely on the illusion of physical presence?

Moving from current practices to future scenarios, the workshop will use a design exercise to produce a conceptual framework promoting accountability, expression, and trust in online interactions. We invite contributions from researchers exploring social aspects of CMC, including, but not limited to: blogging, gaming, online dating, mobile and ubiquitous social devices. Furthermore, researchers interested in reputation, trust, privacy and vulnerability; social networks, identity, persistent conversations, and context are encouraged to apply.

Participants will be selected based on demonstrable interest in the topic, as seen through position papers submitted prior to the workshop.

Proposals should consist of
- A sketch, design, or other constructed representation of digital identity; alternatively, a collage of existing representations of digital identity
- A 1-page discussion of the critical issues considered in this representation and the process of producing it.
- A 1-page discussion of background, interests, current work and motivation for participating in this workshop

Acceptable submission formats include: Word, PDF, HTML, Flash, Quicktime, etc.

Organizers:
- danah boyd :: http://www.danah.org/
- Michele Chang :: http://www.intel.com/research/people/bios/chang_m.htm
- Elizabeth Goodman :: http://www.confectious.net/
Contact organizers if you are concerned about the submission format: danah boyd, Michele Chang, Elizabeth Goodman (cscw04-identity@googlegroups.com)

Crawford on Immersion

"I am surprised at the two comments dismissing menu-driven interfaces as destructive to immersion. While I agree that menu-driven interfaces do interrupt the real-time experience, I question whether real-time experience is a significant consideration. I suspect that some people are expecting interactive storytelling to mimic cinema, which is real-time in nature. But cinema is the only storytelling medium that maintains real-time behavior. Theater has lengthy intermissions, and audiences don't lose the thread of the story. Television has commercials every ten minutes, and while people complain, the success of the medium clearly demonstrates the insignificance of real-time continuity to the success of storytelling. And of course literature is the most discontinuous medium of all - people can interrupt the reading of a book at any time, pop in a bookmark, and come back to the story hours, days, or weeks later.
Cinema was crippled in its early years by expectations that it mimic theater. It took revolutionaries such as D.W.Griffith to break loose from those silly expectations and establish the unique character of that medium. The same will happen with interactive storytelling".

Grand Text Auto » TIDSE 2004 (Part 1)

Gesture Interfaces

Beyond keyboards, weather forecasting, and games, gesture recognition technology could transform the way people interact with computers in a variety of settings. Universities have been working on the technology for years. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, for example, have explored how gesture recognition may help reduce automobile accidents. A group led by Thad Starner has created what it calls a 'gesture panel' in place of a standard dashboard control. The driver adjusts the car's temperature or sound system volume by maneuvering her hand over a designated area, without having to take her eyes off the road.

Researchers at MIT's Media Laboratory have studied ways in which gestures could be used to enhance various entertainment devices. A 'StoryMat', for example, could recognize and react to movements of particular toys on a child's play mat. A 'conversational humanoid' senses and responds to a person's motions, as reported by a wearable, electromagnetic tracking device. Other projects examine the emotional messages that gestures and posture convey. Research has shown that it's possible to program machines to discern the interest or lack thereof that children display when interacting with educational software, says Rosalind W. Picard, director of the lab's affective-computing research group. A program that incorporated such inadvertent user input could respond accordingly—perhaps by switching activities when the user slumped in apparent boredom.

Tech Review article: Computing Gets Physical

Full article here.

Visiting Speaker for CTIN 309, 4/12/04: John Rocco

John Rocco, Creative Director for DisneyQuest and Mission: Space Race, will talk about the design process and user testing for location-based entertainment.

Location: IML (G142 under the Carson Stage)
Time: 2pm-3:30pm, 4/12/04

Dramatic Interactive Experiences

I happened upon this article on drama in games while perusing Gamasutra. It seems to be a nice counter to John Carmack's views on story in games (story in games=story in porn movie)...

Agitating for Dramatic Change
By Randy Littlejohn
Forms of computer-based interactive entertainment are heavily controlled by the idea that they are "games", which are produced for a narrow (but profitable) market of "gamers". Thus, fast, fun arcade-like experiences, artificial puzzle-solving, gaining points and "winning" have been the main emphasis in interactive design, even while the graphic and sound environments have become more and more realistic -- even as NPCs have become embedded with so-called "AI".

The idea of story is largely used to set the stage for first person shooters and role-playing games. Once the game begins, story elements become simplistic, linear or at least pre-defined, and "underwhelming" -- if they exist at all. Character development is something left behind after opening movies and seldom-read documents that come with the game, which outline who's who, and why they're doing what. It is rare indeed to find good character development and multi-layered, gradually unfolding stories in computer games - to say nothing of good, emotionally moving drama.

I have heard the justification that computer animated NPCs are simply not sophisticated enough to pull off a dramatic performance - and yet poorly animated Saturday morning cartoons can be emotionally involving (if rarely, but the point is that they are indeed sometimes moving). The NPCs in Half-Life 2 are more life-like and have more ability to communicate a range of emotions than perhaps in any game before, except for the days of live-action games. Nevertheless, judging only from the E3 demo, Half-Life 2 still seems to be basically a "shooter", rather than an interactive drama, albeit in a more realistic universe than usual.

No, it's not that NPCs can't emote. Instead, I think that given the emphasis of "game-think", and a market of "gamers", it's clear that the ideas of story and drama are simply a low priority.

And there's nothing at all wrong with this. Computer games serve a lucrative market. If it's not broken, don't fix it. It's just that I think a far bigger market is being left untapped.

In addition, I've found that people who are not professional writers or professional storytellers, but who may be "designers", "level-designers" or "producers" hash out a story premise for a game, or will decide on a setting populated by a certain kind of characters and monsters, who live in a matrix of certain rules. Sometimes a professional writer will be brought in to take what has already been decided upon and flesh it out. The professional writer may write a background story that sets the stage for the action and/or will write up biographies for the main characters. Much of this will never been seen in the game itself, beyond opening movies and cinematics. Sometimes professional writers will even get in on dialogue writing. But in terms of actual game design, my experience has been that in general, there's little attempt or little interest in interweaving non-linear story elements, strong character development and the principles of drama into interactive designs. This hampers appealing to a mass audience as much as the insistence on developing interactive entertainments by game-think alone.

Other kinds of interactive entertainment, based on good storytelling, good character development and an adaptation of the principles of drama, targeted to consumers with computers, but who are not avid gamers -- are waiting to be designed - and profited from. I think that the masses are ready to spend money for an interactive drama that leaves the trappings of computer 'games' behind. Whoever builds this groundbreaking system is going to get rich.

...

I'm agitating for the creation of a new kind of interactive experience that is comfortable and compelling for the masses. This new art form would immerse the experiencer inside a reality very much like what he or she is already familiar with: film and television.
This is a search for a method of "interactive dramatic narrative presentation" and packaging.

What I see is an interactive drama for the masses who have computers, but who are not "gamers". The masses will be drawn to this experience because of three things: it's familiar like TV and film, the interface is simple and intuitive, and because the characters are emotionally evocative and their plight is understandable and just. There are no brainteasers laid artificially and superficially into the design. If there are to be puzzles, they are puzzles that evolve out of the dramatic backbone of the experience. In fact, everything that can be considered a trapping of 'game thinking' would be absent from this new kind of interactive dramatic experience. Though the designer knows that the experience will have a beginning that sets up the narrative, a middle with evolving conflict, and an end with a good resolution -- no one knows how the dramatic experience will evolve. In my vision, advancing from A to B to C will be a non-linear, yet also emotionally powerful, dramatic experience. So far experiments with interactive storytelling have failed to take into account the need to adapt the principles of drama to interactivity, and thus these experiments have been merely interesting, instead of truly emotionally involving.

(You can read the rest of this article at Gamasutra.com)

Donald Norman

BBC News interviews design and interface guru Donald Norman:

"You see, that's what I'm all about now: none of this website stuff, none of this digital stuff," explains the man who has published extensively on design and how people use objects in their everyday lives.

"I want to make products like this fountain pen that creates such joy when you see it, and you say 'oh wow' and the first thing you want to do is try it."

Read the article and read The Design of Everyday Things.

The new book, Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, comes out January 2004.

"The revolution we are in right now is not so much about the digital revolution, the computer revolution, the internet or the telecoms revolution.

"The revolution is the social interaction revolution and it is all of these things put together in one," he says.

K

Web design interface

From Henry Minsky:

This is a really cool user interface, making use of gestures, animation, to enhance
the ability of people to input stuff with handwritten gestures, and see what's happening
while designing a web site's structure.

http://guir.berkeley.edu/projects/denim/