Designing Technologies that Mediate Human Social Interaction: Strategies for Effective Cooperation and Collaboration
From The Theme KNOWLEDGE WORKER PRODUCTIVITY WHAT IF What if we could develop a theory of “social affordances” (properties of technologies that shape online social interaction, personal judgment, and social decision-making) to better understand and even predict the effects of media design choices on behavior? WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO We set out to […]
EteRNA: Accelerating Knowledge Creation for RNA Bioengineering through Internet-Scale Gaming
From The Theme KNOWLEDGE WORKER PRODUCTIVITY WHAT IF What if technical contributions from citizen scientists could be crowd sourced to accelerate scientific research? WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO With the EteRNA project, we aimed to rapidly advance RNA (ribonucleic acid) bioengineering, and overcome the limits of the traditional “trial and error” design cycle within […]
High Dynamic Range Image Capture and Display
From The Theme SENSING AND COMPUTING WHAT IF What if we could develop methods to transform a full range of captured image data into a high-value display for human processing? WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO We set out to develop devices to capture, store and display a high dynamic range of image data, with […]
High Speed 3D Shape Digitization Using Projected Light Patterns
From The Theme SENSING AND COMPUTING WHAT IF What if we could quickly determine and track the 3D shape of a moving or deforming object? WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO We set out to address one of the central problems in computer vision – the ability digitize an object at high speed. Rapid digitization […]
Force Input Device for Graphical Environment Tweaking (FIDGET)
From The Theme SENSING AND COMPUTING WHAT IF What if we could provide natural interactions with 3D environments? WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO We set out to develop a handheld physical input device that would allow designers to use their dexterity—the whole hand, both hands, perhaps even the whole body— in interacting with graphical […]
Transparent Social Footprints
From The Theme PUBLISH ON DEMAND WHAT IF What if we could help media companies increase revenue by tracking the “social footprints” of their audiences? WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO We wanted to examine the requirements needed to develop prototypes for metrics and tools to support media organizations in the shift from print to […]
The Utility of Calming Technologies in Integrative Productivity
From The Theme KNOWLEDGE WORKER PRODUCTIVITY WHAT IF What if we could use technologies for sensing, feedback and interpretation of cognition, affect and physiology to avoid stress, maintain focus and increase calm? WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO We set out to identify the parameters of systems that could improve mental patterns by influencing cognitive […]
A Journey from Islands of Knowledge to Mutual Understanding in Global Business Meetings
From The Theme KNOWLEDGE WORKER PRODUCTIVITY WHAT IF What if we could use technology to make meetings in a global business environment more effective? WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO We set out to develop a model and tool to promote mutual understanding among global teams, and improve knowledge worker productivity during distributed team meetings. […]
Leveraging Team Information Interactions to Reveal Project Workflows
From The Theme KNOWLEDGE WORKER PRODUCTIVITY WHAT IF What if we could improve the productivity of knowledge workers by developing information management tools that are capable of communicating design processes? WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO We set out to develop a tool that contributed to knowledge workers’ process and productivity by providing project teams […]