pubres /atlas/ en Wearable technology brings high-tech to mushroom hunting /atlas/2018/05/09/wearable-technology-brings-high-tech-mushroom-hunting <span>Wearable technology brings high-tech to mushroom hunting </span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2018-05-09T15:24:51-06:00" title="Wednesday, May 9, 2018 - 15:24">Wed, 05/09/2018 - 15:24</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/article-thumbnail/mushroom2.jpg?h=dfcf7319&amp;itok=buW87AOl" width="1200" height="800" alt="Mushroom"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/144"> News </a> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-tags" itemprop="keywords"> <span class="visually-hidden">Tags:</span> <div class="ucb-article-tag-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-tags"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/364" hreflang="en">CTD</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/342" hreflang="en">devendorf</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/424" hreflang="en">liu</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/34" hreflang="en">news</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/374" hreflang="en">phdstudent</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/370" hreflang="en">pubres</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/376" hreflang="en">unstable</a> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default 3"> <div class="ucb-article-row-subrow row"> <div class="ucb-article-text col-lg d-flex align-items-center" itemprop="articleBody"> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content-media ucb-article-content-media-right col-lg"> <div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--media paragraph--view-mode--default"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div> Assistant Professor Laura Devendorf and Jen Liu, ATLAS doctoral student, co-authored a new study that brings wearable technology to one of humanity's oldest pursuits.</div> <script> window.location.href = `/today/2018/05/09/wearable-technology-brings-high-tech-mushroom-hunting`; </script> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Off</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Wed, 09 May 2018 21:24:51 +0000 Anonymous 1252 at /atlas Augmented reality enhances robot collaboration /atlas/2018/03/15/augmented-reality-enhances-robot-collaboration <span>Augmented reality enhances robot collaboration</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2018-03-15T15:54:29-06:00" title="Thursday, March 15, 2018 - 15:54">Thu, 03/15/2018 - 15:54</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/article-thumbnail/hooman-thumb.jpg?h=db02b657&amp;itok=vNb-0jz6" width="1200" height="800" alt="Researcher with drone."> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-tags" itemprop="keywords"> <span class="visually-hidden">Tags:</span> <div class="ucb-article-tag-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-tags"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/306" hreflang="en">IRON</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/625" hreflang="en">arhci</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/168" hreflang="en">feature</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/422" hreflang="en">hedayati</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/34" hreflang="en">news</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/374" hreflang="en">phdstudent</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/370" hreflang="en">pubres</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/340" hreflang="en">szafir</a> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default 3"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p>Thousands of exciting and novel applications of augmented reality and robotic technologies have emerged in recent years, but the potential for networking these two technologies and using them in conjunction with each other has gone relatively unexplored. However, two papers published by the ATLAS Iron Lab last week for the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction in Chicago open the door to this promising area of research, paving the way for more seamless integration of robots in modern life.<br> &nbsp;<br> Recognizing the value of their innovative work, conference organizers awarded the IRON Lab teams best paper and runner-up best paper in the design category.&nbsp;Assistant Professor <a href="/atlas/dan-szafir" rel="nofollow">Dan Szafir</a>, who directs the IRON Lab, explains that both papers examine the potential for transmitting real-time visual information from drones to people with AR. In the first study, research participants completing an assembly task while sharing a workspace with a drone&nbsp;were more efficient when informed of the drone's&nbsp;flightpath using AR, versus tracking its path without assistance.&nbsp;In the second study, drone photography proved safer and more accurate when a drone camera’s field of view was streamed to operators' AR displays instead of tablet screens, as is the norm today.<br> &nbsp;<br> To conduct the first study, researchers set up an environment </p><div class="align-right image_style-medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <div class="imageMediaStyle medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/medium_750px_50_display_size_/public/article-image/drone1-crop-web.png?itok=dQrtkgC5" width="750" height="560" alt="Reseach subject looking at drone through AR headset."> </div> </div> similar to a small warehouse, where participants were assigned the task of stringing beads in a specific color order, requiring them to move between six assembly stations, remaining at a safe distance from the drone at all times. Their goal was to assemble as many beaded strings as possible in eight minutes. When the drone approached, the participants&nbsp;had to stop work and move to a different workstation.<br> &nbsp;<br> Results found that when the drone’s imminent flightpath was communicated with AR, participants were more efficient. Furthermore, the study evaluated tradeoffs in a variety of different graphical approaches to communicating the drone’s flightpath, which may help guide the design of future AR interfaces.<br> &nbsp;<br> The second study found that AR technology helped drone operators take photos more safely and with more accuracy. Using a drone-mounted camera, research subjects were asked to photograph framed targets on a wall as quickly and precisely as possible. The drone camera’s field of view was visible to operators using a handheld tablet and using AR, in a variety of graphical configurations.<br> &nbsp;<br> Results were judged by how fast subjects completed the task, the accuracy of their photos and the number of times the drones&nbsp;crashed. Once again, the study found AR significantly improved performance, increasing accuracy and reducing the number of crashes, with some AR graphical approaches proving more effective than others.<p> </p><div class="align-left image_style-medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <div class="imageMediaStyle medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/medium_750px_50_display_size_/public/article-image/drone2.jpg?itok=C-Rrnj8a" width="750" height="498" alt="Research subject wears AR headset with airborne drone nearby."> </div> </div> As the world moves towards integrating humans and robots in the workplace, effective collaboration depends on the ability of team members to rapidly understand and predict a robot’s behavior, something that human workers do through facial expressions, gestures and speech,” says Szafir, who directs the IRON Lab. “Human workers want to know explicitly when and where their robot coworker intends to move next, and they perform best when they can anticipate those movements. We are excited to be exploring how to leverage augmented reality to communicate this information in new and more effective ways.”<br> &nbsp;<br> Taking place over a 12-month period, the two studies&nbsp;<span><a href="/atlas/node/154" rel="nofollow">Szafir</a></span> supervised&nbsp;were conducted by PhD students Michael Walker and <a href="/atlas/node/610" rel="nofollow">Hooman Hedayati</a>, along with master’s student <a href="/atlas/node/176" rel="nofollow">Jennifer Lee</a>. After being launched in January 2016 and&nbsp;<span>Szafir</span> making the <a href="/atlas/2017/01/20/forbes-30-under-30-science-assistant-professor-dan-szafir" rel="nofollow">Forbes&nbsp;"30 Under 30: Science" list</a> in January 2017, the IRON Lab's latest commendations from the world's preeminent HRI conference sets expectations high for this ambitious and growing group of researchers.<p><span><a href="https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3171253" rel="nofollow">Communicating Robot Motion Intent with Augmented Reality</a></span> by Michael Walker, <a href="/atlas/node/610" rel="nofollow">Hooman Hedayati</a>, <a href="/atlas/node/176" rel="nofollow">Jennifer Lee</a>, and&nbsp;<span><a href="/atlas/node/154" rel="nofollow">Daniel Szafir</a>&nbsp;</span>(Best Paper—Design,&nbsp;ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction, 2018)</p><p><span><a href="https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3171251" rel="nofollow">Improving Collocated Robot Teleoperation with Augmented Reality</a>&nbsp;</span><span>by </span><a href="/atlas/node/610" rel="nofollow">Hooman Hedayati</a><span>, </span>Michael Walker<span> and <a href="/atlas/node/154" rel="nofollow">Daniel Szafir</a>&nbsp;</span>(Runner-Up Best Paper—Design,&nbsp;ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction, 2018)</p><p><a class="ucb-link-button ucb-link-button-gray ucb-link-button-default ucb-link-button-large" href="/atlas/augmented-reality-informs-human-robot-interaction" rel="nofollow"> <span class="ucb-link-button-contents"> <i class="fa-solid fa-rocket">&nbsp;</i> Visit Project Page </span> </a> &nbsp;</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>ATLAS IRON Lab researchers were awarded best paper and runner-up best paper at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction for developing technologies that use augmented reality to enhance drone operation.</div> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Off</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Thu, 15 Mar 2018 21:54:29 +0000 Anonymous 1148 at /atlas Stephen Hawking and celebrity deaths: trolls, tears and social media /atlas/2018/03/15/stephen-hawking-and-celebrity-deaths-trolls-tears-and-social-media <span>Stephen Hawking and celebrity deaths: trolls, tears and social media</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2018-03-15T11:48:27-06:00" title="Thursday, March 15, 2018 - 11:48">Thu, 03/15/2018 - 11:48</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/article-thumbnail/979px-stephen_hawking_2008_nasa.jpg?h=f876a9b2&amp;itok=QuXiSXvm" width="1200" height="800" alt="Photo of Stephen Hawking"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-tags" itemprop="keywords"> <span class="visually-hidden">Tags:</span> <div class="ucb-article-tag-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-tags"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/426" hreflang="en">gach</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/34" hreflang="en">news</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/374" hreflang="en">phdstudent</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/370" hreflang="en">pubres</a> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default 3"> <div class="ucb-article-row-subrow row"> <div class="ucb-article-text col-lg d-flex align-items-center" itemprop="articleBody"> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content-media ucb-article-content-media-right col-lg"> <div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--media paragraph--view-mode--default"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>Westword discusses ATLAS PhD student Katie Gach's social media research related to celebrity deaths in the context of Stephen Hawking's passing.</div> <script> window.location.href = `http://www.westword.com/news/stephen-hawking-and-celebrity-deaths-trolls-tears-and-social-media-9768321`; </script> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Off</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Thu, 15 Mar 2018 17:48:27 +0000 Anonymous 1146 at /atlas Browser extension helps the visually impaired interpret online images /atlas/2018/01/30/browser-extension-helps-visually-impaired-interpret-online-images <span>Browser extension helps the visually impaired interpret online images</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2018-01-30T14:01:29-07:00" title="Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - 14:01">Tue, 01/30/2018 - 14:01</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/article-thumbnail/caption-crawler.jpg?h=f58a0df8&amp;itok=86easV8U" width="1200" height="800" alt="&lt;img alt=&quot;image&quot;&gt;"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/278"> Research Brief </a> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-tags" itemprop="keywords"> <span class="visually-hidden">Tags:</span> <div class="ucb-article-tag-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-tags"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/306" hreflang="en">IRON</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/384" hreflang="en">SUPER</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/428" hreflang="en">guinness</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/34" hreflang="en">news</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/374" hreflang="en">phdstudent</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/370" hreflang="en">pubres</a> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default 3"> <div class="ucb-article-text" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p>Imagine internet browsing without the ability to make sense of images. It’s a problem that visually impaired computer users face every day. While screen reading technology gives users audible access to written content, it needs written descriptions to interpret images, and often there isn’t any.</p><p> </p><div class="align-left image_style-medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <div class="imageMediaStyle medium_750px_50_display_size_"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/medium_750px_50_display_size_/public/article-image/caption-crawler_0.jpg?itok=iEjpCo-g" width="750" height="500" alt="&lt;img alt=&quot;image&quot;&gt;"> </div> </div> Some website developers include descriptions of images in the code (called “alt text”) because it improves their websites’ search engine rankings. However, there’s no mechanism for determining whether these descriptions are accurate or informative. As a result, developers often enter one-word descriptions such as “image” or “photo,” leaving the visually impaired with no useful information about the image.<p>To help address this problem, an ATLAS Institute researcher developed a system that collects captions and alt text associated with other instances of the same photo elsewhere online, associating human-authored descriptions with every website where it appears. Called Caption Crawler, the image captioning system compiles descriptions in a database: if a photo has never been queried, it will offer alt text in about 20 seconds; if the photo has previously been processed, alt text is available almost immediately.</p><p>The technology was developed by Darren Guinness, a PhD student in the ATLAS Interactive Robotics and Novel Technologies (IRON) Lab and the Superhuman Computing Lab, working in conjunction with Microsoft Research’s Edward Cutrell and Meredith Ringel Morris. The research, which merges the benefits of a fully automated system with the quality of human-authored content, will be presented at the Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) 2018 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in Montreal in April.</p><p>Users who want Caption Crawler to replace poor-quality alt text, press a keyboard shortcut to request a replacement. &nbsp;The screen reader automatically speaks the new caption, which is the longest caption found for a particular photo. Users can also use a different shortcut to access any additional found captions.</p><p>Caption Crawler only works with images used on multiple websites, but the approach is effective because about half of website administrators provide informative photo descriptions, Guinness says.</p><p>“Although this approach cannot caption unique images that only appear in a single place online, it can increase the accessibility of many online images,” he says. “Caption Crawler is a low latency, incredibly low-cost solution to a big problem. It produces human-quality captioning without incurring additional costs in human labeling time.”</p><p>Caption Crawler combines a Google Chrome Browser Extension with a Node.js cloud server. The browser extension searches the Document Object Model (DOM) &nbsp;of the active webpage for image tags and background images, which are then sent to the server for caption retrieval. When Caption Crawler finds a caption for an image, the caption is streamed back to the browser extension, which then associates the caption to the image.</p><p>Research shows humans produce higher quality captions than automated computer and machine-learning based approaches, Guinness says. Caption Crawler uses a hybrid system that captures both, prioritizing human captioning over machine learning and computer vision-based approaches. If no human-authored captions can be found, computer-generated captions from Microsoft’s CaptionBot are used to describe the image. When the text from CaptionBot is read aloud, the screen reader first speaks the words “CaptionBot,” so that the user is aware that the caption is not human-authored.</p><p>“Hybrid systems that meld both human-quality text and machine learning approaches hold a lot of promise for improving access to online media,” Guinness says.</p><p><a href="https://www-cs.stanford.edu/~merrie/papers/captioncrawler.pdf" rel="nofollow">Full CHI 2018 paper</a></p><p>[video:https://vimeo.com/249025146]</p><p>&nbsp;</p></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>ATLAS researcher Darren Guinness developed technology that conveys online photo content to the visually impaired </div> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Off</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:01:29 +0000 Anonymous 1072 at /atlas When celebrities die, social media gets toxic /atlas/2017/12/06/when-celebrities-die-social-media-gets-toxic <span>When celebrities die, social media gets toxic</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2017-12-06T16:29:37-07:00" title="Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 16:29">Wed, 12/06/2017 - 16:29</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/article-thumbnail/bowie_brixton_memorial.jpg?h=98ca5560&amp;itok=o_ypasu2" width="1200" height="800" alt="David Bowie's face painted on a wall with flowers in front of it from grieving fans."> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/278"> Research Brief </a> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-tags" itemprop="keywords"> <span class="visually-hidden">Tags:</span> <div class="ucb-article-tag-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-tags"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/426" hreflang="en">gach</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/34" hreflang="en">news</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/374" hreflang="en">phdstudent</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/370" hreflang="en">pubres</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/196" hreflang="en">research brief</a> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default 3"> <div class="ucb-article-row-subrow row"> <div class="ucb-article-text col-lg d-flex align-items-center" itemprop="articleBody"> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content-media ucb-article-content-media-right col-lg"> <div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--media paragraph--view-mode--default"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>Katie Gach's research about how people mourn finds that people are mean to each other online, even in times of tragedy. </div> <script> window.location.href = `/today/2017/12/06/when-celebrities-die-grief-policing-abounds-social-media-gets-toxic`; </script> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Off</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Wed, 06 Dec 2017 23:29:37 +0000 Anonymous 1000 at /atlas Computer music as gateway to learning contemporary computer science /atlas/2017/10/25/computer-music-gateway-learning-contemporary-computer-science <span>Computer music as gateway to learning contemporary computer science</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2017-10-25T09:19:46-06:00" title="Wednesday, October 25, 2017 - 09:19">Wed, 10/25/2017 - 09:19</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/article-thumbnail/atlas_music_kids_faces-29.jpg?h=b6665c38&amp;itok=nVXu8WWj" width="1200" height="800" alt="Assistant Professor Ben Shapiro helps three middle-school students learn Blocky Talky."> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/278"> Research Brief </a> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-tags" itemprop="keywords"> <span class="visually-hidden">Tags:</span> <div class="ucb-article-tag-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-tags"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/304" hreflang="en">LPC</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/528" hreflang="en">blockytalky</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/34" hreflang="en">news</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/370" hreflang="en">pubres</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/196" hreflang="en">research brief</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/336" hreflang="en">shapiro</a> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default 3"> <div class="ucb-article-row-subrow row"> <div class="ucb-article-text col-lg d-flex align-items-center" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p dir="ltr">Designing and programming networked technologies might seem like an advanced topic for computer science education, but researchers from «Ƶ’s ATLAS Institute and Goldsmiths, University of London have demonstrated that even middle school students with limited prior programming experience can develop interactive, creative, networked technologies using specialized technology.</p><p dir="ltr">Principal investigator Ben Shapiro, an assistant professor of computer science at the ATLAS Institute, «Ƶ, worked with his students, and his Goldsmiths colleague Rebecca Fiebrink to construct BlockyTalky WeJam, an interactive computer music toolkit for youth to create computer music systems for collaborative performances. BlockyTalky allows young people to create networks of sensing devices and musical synthesizers, and to program the musical and interactive behaviors of these devices. It also enables users to build a variety of other kinds of physical, sensor-rich interfaces, which students can combine in distributed systems of their own design.</p><p>The study found that exposure to BlockyTalky&nbsp;supported learning about computer science concepts, and changed students' perceptions of computing. “Many American students and adults have negative stereotypes of science and scientists, believing that they are socially distant, dangerous, workaholic, peculiar, irreligious and missing fun in their lives,” said Shapiro. “Creative computing, like in computer music, provides an opportunity to combat pervasive and insidious misperceptions of computer science and computer scientists.”</p><p dir="ltr">The work was reported in the article, “Tangible Distributed Computer Music for Youth,” published in the Summer 2017 issue of Computer Music Journal. The work was supported by the US National Science Foundation (CNS-1418463), the National Center for Women and Information Technology, and LEGO Education.</p><p>&nbsp;</p></div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content-media ucb-article-content-media-right col-lg"> <div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--media paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/article-image/atlas_music_kids_faces-29.jpg?itok=ty0wFQ4X" width="1500" height="1000" alt="Assistant Professor Ben Shapiro helps three middle-school students learn Blocky Talky."> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>Middle school students with limited prior programming experience develop interactive, creative, networked technologies.</div> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Off</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Wed, 25 Oct 2017 15:19:46 +0000 Anonymous 864 at /atlas Software framework turns small robots into controllers /atlas/2017/09/22/software-framework-turns-small-robots-controllers <span>Software framework turns small robots into controllers</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2017-09-22T17:12:51-06:00" title="Friday, September 22, 2017 - 17:12">Fri, 09/22/2017 - 17:12</time> </span> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle focal_image_wide"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/focal_image_wide/public/article-thumbnail/darren-square-thumb-1000px.jpg?h=33056c05&amp;itok=XYv7NYzm" width="1200" height="800" alt="Darren Guinness"> </div> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-categories" itemprop="about"> <span class="visually-hidden">Categories:</span> <div class="ucb-article-category-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-folder-open"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/278"> Research Brief </a> </div> <div role="contentinfo" class="container ucb-article-tags" itemprop="keywords"> <span class="visually-hidden">Tags:</span> <div class="ucb-article-tag-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="fa-solid fa-tags"></i> </div> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/428" hreflang="en">guinness</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/34" hreflang="en">news</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/374" hreflang="en">phdstudent</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/370" hreflang="en">pubres</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/196" hreflang="en">research brief</a> <a href="/atlas/taxonomy/term/340" hreflang="en">szafir</a> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content ucb-striped-content"> <div class="container"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-content paragraph--view-mode--default 3"> <div class="ucb-article-row-subrow row"> <div class="ucb-article-text col-lg d-flex align-items-center" itemprop="articleBody"> <div><p dir="ltr">ATLAS researchers have developed a software framework that enables developers who lack experience programming robots to repurpose off-the-shelf toy and educational devices to serve as input-output devices for desktop applications.</p><p>Dan Szafir, assistant professor of computer science in the ATLAS Institute, Shaun Kane, assistant professor of computer science and ATLAS faculty fellow, and doctoral student Darren Guinness, presented the GUI (graphical user interfaces) Robots framework at the Designing Interactive Systems (DIS 2017) conference in Edinburgh this summer.</p><p>The GUI Robots toolkit enables developers to transform low cost robots (often less than $100 USD) into wireless controllers for desktop applications. The toolkit supports connecting such devices with a wide range of software applications, including web browsers, 3D modeling tools and video games, extending the application user interfaces into the physical world in interesting new ways. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>With most software applications confined to screen-based graphical user interfaces, tactile input and haptic feedback are an important frontier for interaction design.</p><p>Szafir says, “developers can use our framework to quickly prototype tangible interactions and attach them to existing applications. As consumer-oriented, wirelessly-connected robots become ubiquitous, our work can enable new user experiences in which an ecosystem of helpful robots extends traditional graphical user interface applications.”&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;</p><p dir="ltr">Similar to a Nintendo Wii console where the controller detects movements in three dimensions, providing realistic on-screen action games, users can repurpose devices to apply the same type of movement in any existing application. For instance, as part of the project a Sphero Ollie was configured as a controller for Rovio Entertainment’s popular Angry Birds game: rolling the robot back and then moving it forward launched a bird. &nbsp;</p><p>Robots can also be programmed to provide physical feedback, such as vibrating when a bird is launched. Or, a user could manipulate a 3D object on the screen by moving and rotating the robot controller in the air.</p><p>To test the GUI Robots toolkit, researchers asked twelve developers to build controllers for two applications: Angry Birds and Windows Movie Maker. &nbsp;All of the developers were able to build working prototypes of the Angry Birds controller within a half hour; the Movie Maker controller took them a little longer.</p><p>As an extension to their work, the team is exploring the use of GUI Robots to provide haptic displays for visually impaired users. Movement or tactile feedback from a robot would be deployed to communicate the kind of information that is typically displayed in charts, diagrams, movies and even interactive simulations. Other promising uses include educational software, controllers for musical instruments and 3D modeling.</p><p><a href="http://dl.acm.org/authorize?N46726" rel="nofollow">Read the research</a></p></div> </div> <div class="ucb-article-content-media ucb-article-content-media-right col-lg"> <div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--media paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div> <div class="imageMediaStyle large_image_style"> <img loading="lazy" src="/atlas/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/article-image/darren_gui_web2.jpg?itok=yayNPbIY" width="1500" height="1000" alt="Darren Guinness"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div>Software turns digital toys into digital tools for desktop applications.</div> <h2> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--ucb-related-articles-block paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div>Off</div> </div> </h2> <div>Traditional</div> <div>0</div> <div>On</div> <div>White</div> Fri, 22 Sep 2017 23:12:51 +0000 Anonymous 764 at /atlas