Publications

ISWC 2002

Minimal Social Weight User Interactions for Wearable Computers in Business Suits

Sixth International Symposium on Wearable Computers, October 07th - 10th, 2002

This paper presents the e-SUIT, a wearable computer incorporated in a traditional business suit. A key feature of the system is an array of input/output devices integrated into the garment. These devices are connected to a network bus incorporated into the suit jacket. The network connects the jackets sensors and I/O with a Compaq iPAQ operating Windows CE. The iPAQ is connected to the users personal information systems via a wireless LAN. Demonstrated within is an application allowing the e-SUIT to control the factory installed Microsoft Pocket Outlook. Pocket Outlook is a functioning business class application that allows the proof of concept testing to be performed on an integrated product used in the marketplace.

ISWC 2003

A Shoulder Pad Insert Vibrotactile Display

Seventh International Symposium on Wearable Computers, October 21st - 23rd, 2003

Touch is the most intimate and inherently private human sense and provides the potential for discrete, low social weight human computer interaction. This paper presents initial research findings on issues of integrating a vibrotactile display and support electronics into a standard clothing insert, the shoulder pad. Research on construction methods is presented along with a discussion of the merits and drawbacks of each technique. User study data for response to tactile display stimuli, collected with a varying number of stimulators, is then presented with initial conclusions as to the type and format of data suitable for shoulder based tactile arrays.

ISWC 2006

Managing Smart Garments

Tenth International Symposium on Wearable Computers, October 11th - 14th, 2006

Ease of maintenance and management of smart garments (garments with integrated electronics) is crucial to their user acceptability and commercial viability. This paper presents a system that addresses user needs of easy garment charging, storage, and synchronization. The HBar smart hanger system is a novel system consisting of a set of augmented garments and coat hangers to fulfill the requirements of a smart garment management system.

OzCHI 2006

Applying Reach in Direct Manipulation User Interfaces

OzCHI, November 20th - 24th, 2006

The HCI community currently faces the problem of making tangible user interfaces actively responsive to their user's current physical context. This paper explores the context of direct manipulation user interfaces for large horizontal interactive displays. Knowledge of user's reach provides direct manipulation user interfaces with a powerful tool for contextualizing and predicting user action. This paper introduces user's reach as a formal way to predict the previously observed phenomena of workspace segmentation and territoriality. By creating models of reachability, reach probability surfaces can be generated which further explain the impact on workspace usage of the shape, height, and position of the workspace. As the presented techniques build on formal qualitative and mathematical models of reach, they lend themselves particularly well to an algorithmic implementation suited to driving complex user interface behavior. This paper presents the results of an initial user study to determine the accuracy of these predictions and their underlying hypotheses about reaches role in shaping workspace usage.

AUIC 2007

Modeling Reach for use in User Interface Design

AUIC, January 30th - February 2nd, 2007

This paper presents the anthropometric parameters of reach as a central concern to both tangible and direct touch user interface design. The paper begins with an introduction to existing literature on reach modeling. As the models in the literature were intended for a stationary individual, a user study was conducted measuring impact of freedom of motion on the maximum reported comfortable reach envelope. The study showed the impact on workspace usage caused by changes in the user's body position, orientation, and in the working surfaces height and shape. Finally, the paper presents several ways in which these reach models can be immediately applied to user interface design.

IFAWC 2004

Subtle Garment Integration of Technology: A Case Study of the Business Suit

First International Forum on Applied Wearable Computing, March 24th-25th, 2004, Bremen, Germany

Integration of technology into standard apparel poses many difficult problems: for the consumer, integration in such a way that technology does not create physical or social discontinuities, and for the manufacturer, development of a production process for integrating technology into apparel. In this paper, we seek to specify the component factors of these problems, and propose a solution within the confines of the business suit.

The business suit represents a standardized garment system, containing pre-existing volumes created by padding or stiffening agents, which create the 3-dimensional tailored shape. We propose exploitation of these volumes to house technology, without requiring a change in the aesthetic appearance of the individual garments or altering the user's perception of the garment system. Creation of stand-alone technology units in the form of garment inserts removes the need for high-level integration of the apparel and technology production processes.

TableTop 2006

Considering Reach in Tangible and Table Top Design

First IEEE International Workshop on Horizontal Interactive Human-Computer Systems (TableTop 2006), January 5th-7th, 2006, Adelaide, South Australia

Reach heavily impacts all aspects of designing for tangible and tabletop user interfaces. It dictates the input space available to each user and heavily shapes how that space is used. Despite its impact to date tangible, table top, and user interface design have all largely overlooked reach as a design constraint. As a result advancing the state of the art for tangible and table top designs requires rethinking existing designs to consider the repercussions of reach, and starting to formally consider reach as part of our designs process. Designing in consideration of reach will allow for more usable tables, applications supporting diverse environments, and user interfaces which are optimally scaled to their current set of users.

ISWC 1998

A Novel Method for Joint Motion Sensing on a Wearable Computer

Second International Symposium on Wearable Computers, October 19 - 20, 1998