[accessibleimage] Re: Dream Machine

Will, since December, my AccessWorld, CHI 2006 articles and my chapter in
Helal's upcoming book have all been about breaking the boundaries of
serialized information for blinks.  This is almost all I think about when I
don't have to think about making money or engineering projects.  It all
comes down to games.  Greenwood is, in audio, demonstrating that one can use
both focal and peripheral attention to perform complex tasks far more
efficiently than anything like the serialized world of current assistive
technology.  I think I have enough notes together for an article on the
theory you and I have discussed about using motion as the key to delivering
a lot of semantic information simultaneously.  I've taken it all a bit
further and now include issues regarding long and short term memory and
other topics which fall more into your area than mine as they are more about
psychology and neuroscience than about rehabilitation science and
technology.

I've built a bunch of software examples (including the geometric shapes that
we've discussed) plus some more interactive examples and think I'm pretty
close to something pretty damned exciting.

I'm heading to Asia in August and one of my tasks there will be to set up a
lab where my experimental framework can be tested.  I know it's sort of
cheating but I don't need to jump through all of the hoops to get an IRB in
the states or equivalent in the EU.  I can, beyond a shadow of a doubt, be
entirely confident that my experiments, even if they go entirely awry,
cannot hurt my human subjects anymore than an X-Box beta tester and MS
doesn't need to go through the effort to ensure they are "protecting human
subjects" who volunteer to beta test their software.

In Asia, I can have a team of graduate students working for peanuts and the
local blindness agency will provide me with the test subjects for free.
We'll probably run the experiments in Autumn.

Based upon the anecdotal results, I think I may actually have stumbled on
something fairly profound.  If my experiments work, you psychology types
will probably have to do some work to explain why they work.  This is my
hacker mind coming to the foreground.  Well before the computer scientists
ever figure out the theory, we've been using the technique.  It's why all of
those security jocks have to do a post mortem to figure out how some clever
high school kid cracked their system.  

-----Original Message-----
From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Will Pearson
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 12:38 PM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Dream Machine


Hi Chris,

Thanks for coming up with some applications.  I was really thinking in terms

of line drawing, and at an abstract, implementation neutral, level.  Adding 
some applications has made me think about this some more.

I think this comes back to my old friend serialisation.  In some tasks, such

as the example of establishing the distance between two points, each point 
can be selected in a serial manner, requiring only a single point of input 
to be in use at any one time.  Stretching objects is an interesting example,

and one where I concede that multiple points of interest could be useful. 
Given a situation where an object is required to be stretched to a specific 
size, although both points can be stretched in a non-uniform manner, 
multiple points of input would be advantageous.    This could be achieved 
serially, but it would be harder.  The first step would be to calculate the 
position of the first point, and then move that point to that position. 
Moving the second side is easier, and would be a case of altering the 
spatial relationships of the second point so that it occupied the desired 
distance from the first point.

Will
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Hofstader" <chris.hofstader@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 4:14 PM
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Dream Machine


Multiple input points will provide a user with the functionality of
announcing the distance between to points in millimeters, inches, miles or
kilometers (on a map), and any number of very valuable measurements that can
only be known by the application that handles the scaling and presentation.
Thus, if one is augmenting a map to their house generated by MapPoint, they
can do so with some degree of precision.  Also, if they are a kid doing a
drawing for dad they need to make sure it fits on the blank father's day
card stock that the rest of the kids are using in class.  So, I think that
having more than one point of input is very important.

Taking the whole concept from drawing into a tactile graphic system for
science and mathematics the user, with multiple input points, can, with
their hands, "stretch" a curve with far greater precision if the program
they use can provide them with x/y/z points relative to one or more other
points that they can make with spare fingers.

-----Original Message-----
From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Will Pearson
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 8:17 AM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Dream Machine


Hi Chris,

Whilst multiple points of input aren't necessary for drawing, the technique
typically only uses a single point of input with the other points being for
reference, I can see some benefit in multiple input points.  Sticking with
the topic of drawing, the additional input points could be used to alter
state, similar to the manner in which alt, ctrl, shift, etc. alter state on
a keyboard.  This would allow someone to use the same finger motion, or
motion of an input device, to semantically indicate different actions based
on the state of the system, determined by other input points.

Whilst not necessary, multiple input points do make for an interesting
addition, and therefore Apple could potentially deny people the opportunity
to explore these possibilities, as they have attempted to do with
possibilities in the past.  Is the LPF still active?  If so, you may have
found another convert.

Will
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Hofstader" <chris.hofstader@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2006 9:23 PM
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Dream Machine


Apple has recently announced that they have filed for a patent on a
multi-point touch screen which can probably solve half of the problem by
providing multiple simultaneous hot spots.  As far as reasonably priced
tactile output is concerned, there is a group called orbital (I think) doing
some very interesting work which, I hear, has come a long way since I saw it
a few years ago.  If one can "marry" these technologies, full page
interactive Braille and graphics might be possible in a profitable product
that could sell for under $1500.  I think we're at least three years out
before this can be a reality but adding touch input to tactile output (both
technologies are flexible and neither seems entirely incompatible with the
other) might not have the financial backing to move it forward.

Apple, in spite of their meager screen reader, isn't too friendly too blind
people or technologies related to blindness but they do love licensing
patents and a multipoint touch technology can find homes well beyond
anything they care to do.  Orbital is small, venture funded and very
aggressive so they want to license things everywhere.


-----Original Message-----
From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tina E
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2006 1:03 PM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: Dream Machine


Hey there to all,

My dream machine would also incorporate a touch tablet feature for
input and tactual output, where we could draw lines, select areas for
fills, and so on, by touching spots with fingertips, and then, well,
doing something to signal that a point-and-click should occur.

It should also allow for erasures, or slight re-draws, if finger-drawn
input hasn't been to one's exact liking.

Tina E
Please feel free to visit my blog,
Tina's Virtual BackPack:
http://tvbp.wordpress.com
tina-e@xxxxxxxxx

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