SUB: HCI Programme: BTECH CS

Sem: 6th Year:2020-21

Lab - 10

PART A
(TO BE REFFERED BY STUDENTS)

A.1 AIM: Case study on SMS in action

Hospital da trofa
TOWER workspace awareness

A.2 PREREQUISITE
knowledge of programming languages ,computer graphics and virtual reality
A.3 OUTCOME

1. Study a real application to demonstrate the knowledge of design, research and

development issues related to HCI.

PART B
(PART B: TO BE COMPLETED BY STUDENTS)
Roll No: B248 Name: Saket Singh
Class : Btech CS Batch : B
Date of Experiment: Date of Submission:-
Grade :

B.1 case study :

1. case study    Ambient Wood

Ambient Wood is an innovative educational experience exploring how
biological ideas can be learnt in a real environment augmented by
technology.
In a wood near Sussex University a group of school children gather for a
day of activities. The children divide into pairs and each pair are given a
PDA, a light and moisture probe and a small walkie-talkie so that they can
communicate with a facilitator.

The probe can be pointed into the air, placed into the ground, pressed
against the bark of trees ... or even poked into noses - and produces a
simple display of the light and moisture levels on its screen.

Although the children do not realise this at the time, all the readings they
make are being recorded through a wireless network and the probes are
equipped with GPS so that the location of each reading is also recorded.

As the children walk through the wood they pass near wireless beacons.
Passing these may trigger messages and information to appear. Passing
one beacon they hear a strange slurping sound - a massively amplified
recording of a butterfly sucking nectar!

At one point in the wood the children find a strange

contraption shaped rather like an old hat-rack or a small
metallic twiggy tree. This is the 'periscope'. It is used for
seeing things that are normally unseen (one of the
strengths of virtual reality - see ch. 20, p.738).

The form of the device was designed by partners from the

Royal College of Art trying to capture some of the sense of
symbiosis between technology and the organic
environment of the wood. (see /e3/casestudy/arts/ for
more about the interaction between technology and the
arts.)

Inside the hood of the periscope is a small computer screen and this is
controlled by the 'handles' of the periscope. Moving the handles from side
to side pans a virtual view of the wood. Twisting them makes the image
move up and down. This is a rather odd mix of virtual and augmented
realities. The periscope is set in the real environment and portrays a
virtual view of the environment, but you can only see the real
environment 'round the side of' not through the image. Children would
walk behind the periscope and expect that their friends could see them in
the virtual image. Although our lives are filled with technology, we are
still cognitively 'built' for the real world and find it hard to adjust to these
half-real situations (see also ch. 18, p. 653 on 'natural' cognition).

Around the periscope itself are small petri dishes

containing various natural objects: a spider, some
fungi, etc. Each item is marked with an RFID tag.
One of the dishes has an RFID reader and when the
items are placed on this they are detected. The
virtual image then shows the ecological effect of
adding the organism to the habitat.

This exploratory investigation allows the children to build

complex understandings of the rich ecological web
including the fragility of habitats. This is a form of
constructive learning where the children are able to
actively create their own individual knowledge structures.

Constructive learning theories usually emphasise the

importance of authentic situations. The wood provides
just this, but of course it is impossible (or at least
inadvisable) actually to introduce new species and watch their effect on
the environment. The technology serves therefore not to substitute for a
real situation, but to make possible investigations that would otherwise be
impossible and do so in as contextual a manner as feasible.

Within the wood is a tent, 'the den', where the

children gather at the end of the session to
discuss their findings. The den contains
computer displays and various augmented
materials.

The light and moisture readings they have taken

are plotted on a map of the wood and the
children are able to look for patterns - for
example, is the level of moisture in the earth higher or lower near trees.

Notice how the children engage in data collection, hypothesis generation

and testing - the key elements of scientific investigation - both while in
the wood taking readings and also back in the den comparing and
collating results.

Also this scientific thinking is not taking place alone. Both in pairs in the
wood and as a class back in the den they are explaining their own ideas
and understanding to one another as well as hearing each others
thoughts. This collaborative learning obviously allows each child to benefit
from the groups as a whole. However more important is that the process
of explaining to others engenders reflective thinking ... not just learning
things, but thinking about the knowledge. This reflection is an important
aspect what is called meta-cognition, the higher-level thinking that allows
us to learn better throughout our lives.
Some aspects of the technology in the Ambient
Wood are very clear to the children: the PDAs, the
probes, the walkie-talkies, the periscope, the
display back in the den. But behind the scenes
there is even more at work. In the trees and
scattered around the wood were numerous
computers and pieces of electronics.

The computers communicate via standard

WaveLAN wireless networks (802.11b) as used in many offices, airports,
etc. This is fairly standard technology, but the wood is not a standard
environment: the natural environment of the wood is inimical to wireless
networks!

The wood seems a very open environment compared to the walls and
ceilings of a building, but the leaves and wood of the trees are 90% water
and water absorbs the radio waves. It is impossible to have just a few
wireless base stations that talk to everything and all the computers had to
be set up to relay wireless messages to one another. Even then they had
to be placed below the leaf canopy as in summer the leaves blot out radio
transmission at even very short range.

The Ambient Wood's technology doesn't just

depend on computers, behind the scenes also a
group of technicians were constantly working to
keep the various aspects of the wood running ...
not least literally running around between
outside sessions replacing the batteries in the
many, many devices ... the wood doesn't come
equipped with mains electricity.

Whilst this level of support is acceptable for experiments; it will be some

time before the technology is mature enough to allow easy deployment of
this sort of rich educational environment.
2. Hermes - electronic doorplates

You have an appointment but are going to be late, so you ring a colleague
and ask her to put a yellow sticky note on your door ... The first time it is
OK, the second, ... but eventually you are embarassed each time you
ask ... do you know the feeling.

The Hermes system is a network of electronic displays

mounted on the door frames of offices. The door owner can
leave messages for people visiting the offiice and visitors
can leave messages for the door owner.

Imagine you are a student, Breathless you arrive at Alan's

office. At near eye height you see an LCD screen beside the
office door. It has a message on it "caught in traffic,
running half an hour late". You breath a sigh of relief - you
were 10 minutes late yourself for a 10 o'clock meeting, you even have
time to go to the machine and buy a coke.

Some time earlier, stationary in the long traffic queue Alan realised he
was getting nowhere, got out his mobile phone and sent the text message
to the Hermes phone number. It knew from his mobile number who iit
was a routed the message to the correct door.

As you drink you recall that you have a meeting with a different professor
at 10:30, so you go back to Alan's office and click "Leave Note". You write
a message with the stylus "seeing Prof. C, will
call by later". You hope he will understand your
handwriting. As you click confoirm the
message disappears from the screen and
Alan's message returns for th next visitor.

When Alan arrives he sits down, and start up

his email. One of the messages is from Hermes
including a bitmap image of the message left
on the door. This reminds him that the door is
still saying he is stuck in traffic, so he goes to
the Hermes web site, logs in, changes the door
display and also checks the other messages Hermes web interface
that have been left that morning.

Later on Alan leaves his office, but as he shuts the door, he decides he
ought to leave a message to say he is around. He logs into the door
display and draw a message, as he logs out the message stays on his
door for visitors to see later.

Hermes raises a number of design issues:

situated displays
The fact that it is by the office door is significant - it is where they
go to find the door owner, so visitors notice it
(see section 2.4.3. large displays and situated displays)
accessibility
The Hermes door plate has to be placed at a height where it can be
reached froma wheel chair
(see chapter 10. universal design)
physical security
how do you protect the door plates form being stolen or
damaged? ... In fact one was and now they are fixed to the wall
with special security screws!

Perhaps you could discuss this with your class? How many other issues
can you think of?

3. Ghost Orders – getting the job done

Ethnographic studies of workplaces typically find that the technical systems and
administrative processes, do not really fit the observed practices. Instead those on the ground
develop workarounds, tweaks and subversions of the systems in order to 'get the job done'.

One example of this was in a factory. A new system had been developed in order to optimise
the flow of materials through the various machines. As orders were received, the system
worked out what materials would be consumed and which machines would be required for
each stage of the production process. It then created an optimal schedule making best use of
the machines to deliver the ordered goods as efficiently as possible.

This all sounds very good. However, the salesforce was not so happy.

There were some very valuable customers who submitted regular high-income orders, but were
not always very timely in submitting them.
 In the past, when one of these orders came, a salesperson would tell the foreman in the factory
that it needed to be a 'rush job' and it was slotted in to keep the valued customer happy.
However, with the new system this was no longer possible as the machines were often fully
utilised by the optimisation algorithm.

To deal with this the salespeople would submit 'ghost orders', predicting their customers likely
orders. When the actual order came the ghost order would be cancelled and the real order
substituted. Effectively the ghost orders pre-booked machines.

Bowers et al (1995) tell a similar story of a printshop management system which was intended
to support moment-to-moment information. However, the work-logging component was so
inflexible one site maintained a parallel paper system and entered the information at the end
of each day.

B.2. Observations and learning:

HCI could help us in making our lives easier.

B.3. Conclusion:

By the above case study, we came to a conclusion that design, research and
development issues related to HCI can be implemented to real life problems and how HCI
could help us in making our lives easier.