This year at CHI I will be presenting a work in progress and attending the “Experiencing Interactivity in Public Places” workshop.

My work in progress presentation discusses work I completed on the MultiMemoHome Project with my colleagues Marilyn McGee-Lennon, Euan Freeman, and Stephen Brewster. This paper describes the co-design of a smartpen and paper calendar-based reminder system for the home. The design sessions involved older adults and used experience prototypes. We completed these co-design sessions with older adults in order to explore the possibility of exploiting paper-based calendars for multimodal reminders systems using a smartpen. The initial results demonstrate successful interaction techniques that make a strong link between paper interaction and scheduling reminders, such as using smartpen annotations and using the location of written reminders within a paper diary to schedule digital reminders. The results also describe important physical aspects of paper diaries as discussed by older adults, such as daily/weekly layouts and binding. Full Paper

My position paper for the EIPS workshop discusses my current work as a SICSA Fellow in Multimodal Interaction at Glasgow University. When interactive systems require users to “perform” in front of others, the experience of interacting dramatically changes. This “performative” dynamic can be purposefully exploited in the design and evaluation of interactive systems to create compelling experiences. In this work, I explore these issues using highly flexible low-resolution displays composed of strips of individually addressable LED lights. These low-resolution displays can take a wide variety of forms and can be deployed in many different settings. I pair these displays with depth sensors to add playful interactivity, whole body interaction, and proxemic interaction. Such a combination of flexible output and depth-based input can be used for a variety of playful and creative interfaces. In this paper, I describe some of the most promising directions made possible using this technology, such as ambient interfaces that create playful reactive experiences, visualize pedestrian traffic, and highlight social dynamics. Full Paper