UCLIC Research Seminar Series

In my vision, the user interfaces of the future are in a blend of smart physical and virtual environments. My research focuses on the physical side by bringing interactivity to everyday things. I believe this vision is only achievable if people with varying backgrounds and abilities can work together in an accessible and collaborative environment. In this talk, I will describe two major threads of research in interactive everyday things and hardware prototyping tools. The first thread investigates interactive systems to sense the context of use of the things or estimate a user's intention when touch input data is noisy. For example, I will demonstrate a tablecloth augmented with a fabric sensor that can sense and recognize non-metallic objects placed on a table, such as food, different types of fruits, liquids, plastic, and paper products. I will also show examples of how this technique can be used for contextual applications. The second thread investigates tools to lower the bar of entry to prototyping electronics, which is an essential skill needed to create smart everyday things. The goal of this line of work is to enable more people with varying backgrounds and abilities to create smart everyday things and eventually a better user experience of smart environments. For example, I will demonstrate an audio-tactile tutorial system for blind or low vision learners to understand circuit diagrams, which is an important task in the circuit prototyping pipeline. Both of these threads share a common goal that is to create a better user experience in smart environments.