Tangible Teleconferencing

This paper describes a teleconferencing application that uses real objects to interact with virtual on-screen content. A variety of tangible interaction techniques can be used to load, translate, rotate and scale shared virtual models. In addition, snapshots of real documents can be easily introduced into the system and enlarged using a tangible lens. We describe the teleconferencing interface and present results from a pilot user study

Blank Meaning as Design Affordance. Memory and Fictions (a dialogue between Anna Calvera and Fátima Pombo)

Consideracions entorn la càrrega de significats, valors emotius i simbòlics que els usuaris dels objectes projecten sobre ells quan se n'apropien afectivament. Revisió de la multitud de criteris pels quals aquest fenomen te lloc i com canvia la visió de les coses des de la posició e receptors i usuaris. Proposta del concepte de Blanck meaning, o significat en blanc, per fer referència a la capacitat que tenen alguns objectes ben dissenyats per satisfer les necessitats emotives i evocadores d'usuaris i receptors davant les coses de cada dia essent ells mateixos qui els carrega de sentit. Consideraciones en torno la carga de significación, valores emotivos y simbólicos que los usuarios de los objetos cotidianos proyectan sobre ellos cuando se los apropian afectivamente. Revisión de la variedad de criterios por los cuales este fenómeno tiene lugar y cómo cambia la visión de las cosas cuando se miran desde la posición del usuario o del receptor. Se propone el concepto de Blanck Meaning, o sea, significado en blanco, para poder hacer referencia a esa capacidad de algunos objetos bien diseñados para satisfacer las necesidades emotivas y evocadoras de los usuarios ante las cosas de cada día

Look or listen: discovering effective techniques for accessing speech data

Commercial interfaces for accessing digital speech data are based on ‘tape recorder ’ metaphors. However, such interfaces make it highly laborious to access complex speech data. The absence of effective interfaces is a major obstacle to exploiting the increasing number of speech archives now available online. More novel research interfaces provide potentially more effective access by presenting visual or textual indices into the underlying speech data. The current experimental study evaluates the utility of these newer techniques compared with a ‘tape recorder ’ interface. We compare: (a) High-level Visual Overviews showing the distribution and density of user query terms; (b) Textual Transcripts generated using state of the art ASR; (c) a tape recorder baseline. Laboratory tests showed that, contrary to our expectations, high-level visual information proved more useful than textual information, although both perform better than a tape-recorder baseline. Visual overviews enable users to quickly identify relevant regions to be played. In contrast, Textual transcripts can mislead users who try to extract detailed information solely by reading the transcript, without listening to the underlying speech