Projects

The smart home consists of primary sensors (detectors) and controls (actuators) connected by a set of user-defined rules that determine when to trigger the controls based on sensor events. Often, life is more complex than a simple if (sensor event like motion), then (e.g. turn on control, like a light) type rule and requires more complex logic. Even with the simplest rules, the interfaces used to set up that logic can be tedious. Many users of smart homes have trouble configuring the "smarts" of the home.

Singularity is a VR application created with Untiy and the Oculus Rift Touch. The experience aims to explore how players interact in a virtual reality environment as different characters with unique modes of movement. Players have the opportunity for bipedal movement in a room-scale scenario, as well as flight from the seat of a swiveling chair. We explored ways of communicating changes in the player's environment using these core mechanics and atmospheric clues. For example, switching to a different body allows the players to see their previous body through a glass panel.

Anonymity, ephemerality, and hyper-locality are an uncommon set of features in the design of online communities. However, these features were key to Yik Yak's initial success and popularity. In an interview-based study, we found that these three features deeply affected the identity of the community as a whole, the patterns of use, and the ways users committed to this community. We conducted interviews with 18 Yik Yak users on an urban American university campus and found that these three focal design features contributed to casual commitment, transitory use, and emergent community identity.

Despite the potential of AR, there are many issues that practitioners must overcome when successfully implementing AR systems in educational settings. These issues range from technological issues, pedagogical issues, and learning issues. Within the context of training and instructional applications, AR practitioners often struggle to achieve their desired outcomes due to the lack of generalizable results from existing research relating AR/MR/VR deployments for real-world training. Moreover, there is no established conceptual framework for Synthetic Learning Environment (SLE) design options, de

The project seeks to improve the current model of ballet training with wearable technology integrated into existing dance garments-- socks, soft ballet shoes, and legwarmers that sense movement and give real-time feedback to the dancer.

Smart communities have many different network providers, often sharing underground conduits or telephone poles. Their proximity cannot be closer in many cases. Unfortunately, in order for one network to send traffic to the other, providers often much connect through a third party or must send their nearby city to exchange traffic. Further, a network may fail, and there is no alternative for the end user other than to wait for their provider to fix the failure.

A project exploring how people who run in Atlanta might use data generated by city sensor nodes and other sources.

Recent discourses on smart cities have been primarily focused on the deployment of technical infrastructures such as sensor installation, data collection, and security measures. These practices, however, are accompanied with tacit and explicit ideas about ideal cities and human values. This paper presents the preliminary results of an ethnographic study that looks closely at the North Avenue Smart Corridor in Atlanta, Georgia aimed at unpacking the driving ideas behind smart cities initiatives and critically engaging its key assumptions of progress and efficiency.

Laptop webcams can be covertly activated by malware and law enforcement agencies. Consequently, 59% percent of Americans manually cover their webcams to avoid being surveilled. However, manual covers are prone to human error–through a survey with 200 users, we found that over 60% occasionally forget to re-attach their cover after using their webcam. To address this problem, we developed Smart Webcam Cover (SWC): a thin film that covers the webcam by default, and automatically uncovers the webcam when its LED indicator is lit.

Smog Solver is an environmental web simulation of how the smog problem can be possibly solved in Beijing. The purpose of this simulation is to educate users about the major causes of smog in Beijing and the solutions through replays. According to the final evaluation, my simulation could effectively help users learn ~92% of the major causes of smog and increase their knowledge of the solutions.

Text messaging is a functionality that has been widely used in user studies due to its presence in smartphones and feature phones alike. However, the ability to use cell phones for data collection has been limited to researchers that have programming abilities. We present SMSPress, a web-based SMS management system that allows non-technical users to configure SMS studies, and schedule text messages for delivery to participants via a web-interface. We establish the requirements for such a system and present the results from two case studies.

We are developing technological platforms, human and social processes, and the underlying creative abilities to leverage social media and digital networks to enhance democracies especially in Africa. Our current work has focused on participation in and monitoring of elections while future work will expand that frame seeking to foster broader and deeper civic engagement, especially among youth, the promotion of government accountability and efficacy, and the constructive creative ability to hack democracy.