Updates + new design very soon

By Chloe Fan | Published: October 11, 2009

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been almost half a year since I last updated! So much to catch up on.

Summer:
I worked with Orit Shaer on a Microsoft Surface project. Along with Catherine Grevet, Sarah Elfenbein, and Megan Strait, we created G-Nome Surfer, a genome browser for biology researchers. We interviewed many biologists and researchers to find out their work flow, collaboration tools and needs, and existing methods of browsing genomic data. Catherine and I familiarized ourselves with coding in XAML and C#, while Megan and Sarah worked out all the biological details — finding ontology information, gene and chromosome information, etc.

I also got some tiny experience working with Jmol (chemistry molecule viewer) and was able to export molecules into .dae format suitable for 3D printing. I got the molecule into Papervision 3D and hooked it up with a Wiimote. This side project didn’t get very far, but the idea was to play around with a new way of interacting with 3D scientific models by using Wiimotes for more intuitive navigation. I have lots of ideas about other ways we can accomplish this, to be saved for a different blog post.

In August, after the summer research program, I moved and settled in to my new home in Pittsburgh and started classes and research at CMU. I love it here! Getting used to a research environment definitely has its challenges, especially coming from undergrad with little research experience, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it.

That’s it for now. More blog posts to come related to current research I’m working on, and some new ideas I’ve been thinking about. This blog and my portfolio are undergoing a (much-needed) redesign this week, integrating the two together. The design is ready to be uploaded, but first I need to migrate my portfolio from the current site to WordPress for easier management. If you see some weird things around the site, or if it looks broken or something, chances are that I’m working on it. Please check back next week for the new site!

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The end is near!

By Chloe Fan | Published: April 16, 2009

Yikes! It’s been a while since I updated. After spring break, I wrapped up WiiPaint development, attended CHI 2009 (that’s another blog post right there :)), and now I’m working on a poster, a presentation, and the thesis write-up. WiiPaint right now includes support for up to 3 people with dynamic music that changes depending on how users move. The three Wiimotes are located in a hamster ball, cardboard tube, and strapped onto the body for individual or collaborative interaction (see video below). Many thanks to Michael Aldridge for the music piece, Dreaming Forever.

This Saturday is NEUCS where I’ll be displaying my poster and giving a presentation on WiiPaint.  The same poster will be presented at next weekend’s CCSCNE in Plattsburgh, NY, and WiiPaint will be showcased (in a gallery setting!) at Wellesley for the Boston CyberArts Festival.  The honors thesis paper is due on the Tuesday after that (4/28), immediately followed by another presentation at Wellesley’s Ruhlman conference (4/29). My thesis defense will be on May 15 at 11am.

Whew! I’m very fortunate to be working on something that I’m so excited and proud of :) I wish I could perfect it some more, but new adventures await me this summer and beyond! I will be staying at Wellesley to do research on supporting scientific discoveries using reality-based interaction (Android! MS Surface!), and this fall I will be joining Carnegie Mellon’s HCII.

Onward!


WiiPaint demonstration 2 from Chloe Fan on Vimeo.

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Changing affordances

By Chloe Fan | Published: March 14, 2009

The Cirque two weeks ago provided an opportunity to observe users while they interacted with WiiPaint. The two things that stuck out most were:
- Most users asked if the buttons had a function
- Point and click gestures were still the most popular, unless I showed users how to move in WiiPaint

It was clear that if I wanted users to be more natural and fluid with their body movements, I had to do something about the Wiimotes’ affordances. How can we change the look and feel of the Wiimote so that users will approach them a different way? One thought that came up during my weekly thesis meeting was that perhaps the flat front of the Wiimote (where the IR camera is) gave it too much of a point and click remote feel, and that the solution was to create something round that would imply more of a rolling and fluid motion.

Apple Pro Speakers

We played around with some old Mac speakers, taking out the speakers and wires and putting the clear casing on either end of a Wiimote. The result was a 3-4lb dumbbell-shaped object that was throwable and kickable, but most importantly, made the Wiimote a friendlier device that allowed for more naturally fluid movements and elicited no urge to press the buttons!

I didn’t quite like the weight of the Mac speakers, and they had to be taped together, which made reconnecting the Wiimote/changing its batteries difficult. It was “clunky.” So I went to PetSmart and bought a 7″ hamster ball and crafted a “booster stand” out of foam so that the Wiimote fit snugly inside the ball. I also created a Wiimote coffin — a case for the Wiimote that covered the buttons. It is currently shaped like a brick but I plan to sculpt it wand-shaped.

In addition, I finally put together some parts I ordered from RadioShack.com onto a small breadboard to create an IR LED light array. Each LED can be turned on/off with a switch, and controls a differently-colored dot in a rough IR interface within WiiPaint.

Wiimote ball, Wiimote coffin, IR LED board

I plan to be finished with WiiPaint by the end of spring break (3/29). After that, I will run some more studies, hopefully in a gallery setting, and start writing the thesis. Next month, I’ll be preparing for the following conferences:
NEUCS
CCSCNE
CHI 2009
ACM Creativity & Cognition
Wellesley Ruhlman
Boston CyberArts

Onward! :D

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Post-Cirque update

By Chloe Fan | Published: March 1, 2009

Yesterday was the Cirque du CS during which I presented the lastest prototype of WiiPaint 2.  It looks drastically different from the lite bomomo version I posted a few weeks back.  I have some footage of WiiPaint 2 in action and hope to post it online within the next week. I was also interviewed for the Wellesley TV channel, which will be posted online next Friday :)

At the Cirque, I informally tested WiiPaint with everyone from kids to students to parents, observed their interactions, and marked down some of their suggestions.

- B button to toggle is drawing. Users naturally place fingers on trigger button.
- Confusion as to which dot is whose. Need to find a way to either make it obvious, or remove any distinction to add to the “wholeness” of the application.
- Questions about what the buttons do — should brainstorm ways to make a case for the Wiimotes. Perhaps they can be colored differently to match their respective drawing dots on the screen.
- Unless they are told what to do, users first experiment with xy-plane movements (point and click type movements), but when initially told how to interact, they get it almost right away. Likewise, when told what it does and why, users seem to like it a lot more than just exploring with it.
- Kids love shaking the Wiimote :D
- It would be cool to add in interaction between Wiimote circles, for example when two streams collide, they will merge colors, or, as one video-game fan suggested, “battle” each other. (Cool idea, but that probably won’t happen ;))

Anyways, stay tuned for some more video clips next week! In the meantime, I’ve created my first Youtube video of a screen capture of WiiPaint :)

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Reactions to WiiPaint 2

By Chloe Fan | Published: February 8, 2009

Last Friday I had my first meeting with my thesis committee after coming back from Wintersession and presented the beginning of WiiPaint 2.  Currently, it looks like bomomo lite (see previous post) and is used with the Wiimote by pressing the B button. Here is a summary of the comments and suggestions.

- Wiimote response is slow right now. The bomomo circles are following a tiny dot that rolls around the screen according to the Wiimote’s accelerometer values. This can be easily fixed by increasing the speed of the dot and circles, and will allow users to make more dramatic gestures.

- We want to see support for bigger gestures and features (visual/aural cues) that encourage the creation of these gestures. What will encourage users to “dance” and make other full-body movements? Brainstorm movement qualities we want to capture, such as waving, dancing, throwing, etc.

- Visual effects similar to the iPhone app Spawn Illuminati’s double-tap fireworks effect. Implement similar effects for certain types of gestures. Encourage users to want to try out different things to explore these effects.

- Music is also a powerful tool if we want to influence users’ interaction with WiiPaint, i.e. soothing music will probably encourage slower movements. At the very least, I have found an instrumental music loop that I can use, but it would be nice if I could find one that can be overlapped over it to create another dimension.

- Create a tighter border so that the Wiimote dot pointer will not seem to stray away from the screen. Add interactivity to the dot, such as bouncing off the border, so that it does not stay at the edge of the screen.

- Add some fun physics metaphors, such as ball simulation, to make idle states more interesting. On a similar note, implement animation such as fading when idle so that users will want to continue using it.

These are some great suggestions and I can’t wait to implement them!

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