As should be apparent from the list below, I am mainly interested in supervising projects related to human-computer interaction. If you have an idea of your own in that area that you think I might be interested in supervising, then please talk to me. I am particularly interested in:
The TactileImageBase is an on-line facility available to enable the sharing of tactile graphics, developed as part of a previous student project (Varatharajan, 2010). Members can upload tactile images to the database and attach appropriate tags to them. Subsequently other members can search the database for images which meet their own needs, by searching for tags. Members may also attach additional tags to pictures that they have not themselves uploaded.
A problem in using the database to locate pictures is in thinking of the 'right' tag which will retrieve the best image for your needs. In the current system, the member simply types tags which they think are appropriate. An alternative would be to present some or all of the stored tags in a menu - but that would be too unwieldy and not easy to structure well. So another alternative is to use the kind of approach used by sites such as Google, whereby the user starts to type a search term and are then presented with popular search strings similar to the one they are entering. This interactivity is made possible through the use of Ajax, whereby information is sent about the search string to the server, even as it is still being typed (Riodan, 2008).
The question behind this project is whether this kind of prompting leads to better results. While the user still has to think of a tag, they are getting feedback as to whether they are likely to get a result. The potential down-side is that users may be less 'creative' in their selection of tags, sticking only to ones for which they are prompted.
The project would have a technical element - getting to grips with using Ajax. It would then involve the design and implementation of a user experiment to measure the effectiveness of the new system compared to the existing one. The project might also overlap with alistair.03. This would afford scope for some useful collaboration with a student doing that project.
Fu, W-T (2009), A Semantic Imitation Model of Social Tagging, Proceedings of the IEEE conference on Social Computing: 66-72
Getting, Brian (2007), What Are “Tags” And What Is “Tagging?, Practical eCommerce.
Halpin, H., Robu, V. & Shepherd, H. The Complex Dynamics of Collaborative Tagging, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on the World Wide Web (WWW'07), Banff, Canada, pp. 211-220, ACM Press, 2007.
Peters, I (2009). Folksonomies. Indexing and Retrieval in Web 2.0.Berlin: De Gruyter Saur
Pink, D. H. (December 11, 2005). Folksonomy. New York Times.
Riordan, R. (2008) Head first Ajax Sebastopol, CA : O'Reilly.
Vander Wal, T. Folksonomy Coinage and Definition
Varatharajan, B. (2010)User Tagging of a Tactile Image Database University of York MSc (IT) Project Report
The Royal Anthropological Institution (RAI) is in the process of digitizing some of its collection.Yu Lin undertook a project in 2010 looking at the appropriate format to store digitized manuscripts to ensure future-proofing (Borghoff, Rödig, et al. 2006) of the collection (Lin, 2010). He came to the conclusion that SVG (Eisenberg, 2002) was the appropriate format and that Vector Magic software was the best way of generating these files. The RAI is extending the scope of the digitization project to include its photographic collection. A question is what is the appropriate format to store the digitized photographs.
SVG has a lot of advantages for the storage of any graphic:
These advantages would apply also to photographs. However, the quality of photographs translated into SVG with current software is not high. The objective of this project would be to find an appropriate format for photographs. There are a number of questions to address.
As well as technical input, the project will require collaboration with the RAI, in collecting requirements and evaluating results.
A research proposal based on this was submitted to the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The bid was unsuccessful, but the Case for Support will provide a basis for this project (although, of course, the student project will be much less ambitious).
The RAI does not have any extensive IT expertise. In addition to the project report the student will be expected to provide a report for the RAI in a suitable format.
Eisenberg, J. D (2002) SVG Essentials, Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly.
The significant properties of digital objects (Last accessed 16 February 2011)
EPOCH: European Network of Excellence in Processing Open Cultural Heritage (Accessed 16/2/11)
The Royal Anthropological Institution (RAI) is in the process of digitizing some of its manuscripts and photographs (Lin, 2010). Indexing documents is vital, since if they cannot be found then they might as well not exist.
There is already a database of some of the artefacts (some of which are also available in digital form), but it has a number of deficiencies:
Access to the database - and the artefacts - must be restricted to Members and Fellows. Their needs are very varied: one user may be searching for a specific document which they know to exist, while another may be browsing for any information vaguely related to a topic. It is not clear what would be the best way to achieve this flexibility, but tagging is currently a popular approach. Balakumar Varatharajan undertook a similar project in 2010 (Varatharajan, 2010) in which he developed a user-taggable database of tactile images. This project might build on his work.
The project will involve:
The RAI does not have any extensive IT expertise. In addition to the project report the student will be expected to provide a report for the RAI in a suitable format.
Subrahmanian, V. S. (1998). Principles of Multimedia Database Systems, Morgan Kaufmann.
Varatharajan, B. (2010)User Tagging of a Tactile Image Database University of York MSc (IT) Project Report
The significant properties of digital objects (Accessed 16/2/11).
EPOCH: European Network of Excellence in Processing Open Cultural Heritage (Accessed 16/2/11)
The Royal Anthropological Institution (RAI) is in the process of digitizing some of its manuscripts and photographs. In the long term it might be appropriate to locate some or all of it in the Cloud (Barnatt, 2010; Velte et al., 2009).
As a minimum, the Cloud could be used for backup. Using the Cloud for primary storage would relieve the RAI of a need to maintain and manage (large amounts of) storage. It might be desirable to go a stage further and used facilities such as a cloud-based database (alistair.03).
There are, however, concerns about the use of the Cloud which would have to be addressed:
This project would require liaison with the RAI to ascertain their requirements and extensive research into the Cloud. It would not involve any implementation.
The RAI does not have any extensive IT expertise. In addition to the project report the student will be expected to provide a report for the RAI in a suitable format.
Barnatt, C (2010) A Brief Guide to Cloud Computing, London: Constable & Robinson Ltd
Velte, T., Velte, A. & Elsenpeter, R. C. (2009) Cloud Computing, A Practical Approach McGraw-Hill Osborne.
Haptic or force-feedback devices, such as the Phantom Omni, allow people to create invisible objects which can be felt through the device. Such objects have haptic properties - the way that they feel when (effectively) probed with a pen-like actuator. In creating such virtual objects how is the design/programmer to know what they should feel like, both in terms of their surface texture and their deformability?
Users often resort to fruit or vegetable similes (e.g. 'like an orange'). The evidence for this is anecdotal, though. Part of the initial literature review would be to see whether it is documented
There are a number of problems, including
This project will address some of these questions (to be chosen in advance). The student would investigate the relevant properties of fruits and vegetables and then translate them into virtual models for the Omni. Then they would carry out experiments to assess people's perceptions of these virtual objects. Ultimately it would be hoped that a consistent vocabulary could be agreed on as well as tools or guidelines on the conversion from these descriptions into virtual objects.
This project will require good programming skills - to get to grips with the Omni API, but will also require an ability to design and execute experiments with human participants. A knowledge of basic mechanics will probably also be an asset.
Oakley, I., A. Adams, et al. (2002). Guidelines for the design of haptic widgets. People and Computers XVI - Memorable Yet Invisible: Proceedings of HCI 2002, London, Springer, pp. 195-211.
As the user types a search string into Google Instant, it suggestions completions of their string. Does this affect their searches? In other words do people succumb to the suggestions and search for different terms than they would without the suggestions? In other words, could Google shape people's searching behaviour?
The project would involve devising a set of tasks to be solved on the web, using Google. Two groups of participants would be used, half using Google Instant and half the old-fashioned Google. The student would then look for differences in their searching behaviour and see if these can be attributed to the prompts the Instant users receive. Google claim that using Instant reduces search times. It would be useful to try to verify this, but also to assess the trade-off between time and results.
While this method may sound straight-forward, there are a number of potential problems:
Given these challenges, it will probably be necessary to carry out pilot tests before running the study proper.
This project might overlap (in a positive way) with alistair.01, alistair.03 and/or alistair.10.
How Google Saved $100 Million By Launching Google Instant accessed 13 January 2011
How Google works accessed 13 January 2011.
Google instant sucks, it is the biggest POS since the advert of Cow Manure accessed 13 January 2011.
Google Blacklist - Words That Google Instant Doesn't Like accessed 13 January 2011
The idea of sound graphs as a means of representing line graphs to blind people is not new, and was first presented by Mansur and Blattner (1985). The idea is normally as below, whereby the height of the curve on the y-axis is represented by the pitch of a sound, while the x-axis is represented by time. The Audio Graphing Calculator is a commercial (but free) product which implements this idea.
Evaluation of soundgraphs has been largely informal, but that is enough to suggest that they are of some utility. However, there is a suggestion that they could be a lot more useful in the teaching of mathematics, particularly to blind students. The idea is to give students a more direct engagement with the mathematics. The basis of this is that the method of interacting with the graph should be through joysticks. The suggestion is that the scope for teaching a range of mathematics is possible if reformulated to be based on line graph representations. More details of these ideas can be found a separate document (PDF).
The objective of this project will be to implement joystick-controlled soundgraphs. Realistically, the implementation will have to be a prototype with limited functionality. The emphasis will be on the interface, the utility of the joystick-based interaction.
The student would be expected to produce some sample lessons to teach some simple mathematical concepts based on soundgraph representations and to test these with users. For a feasibility study such as this, the participants will probably be capable mathematicians, so the evaluation would concentrate on the usability of the system, rather than learning outcomes. That would be left for follow-on studies (assuming that the feasibility has been demonstrated.)
The project involve programming, in a language such as C++, as well as some evaluation with users.
Bonebright, T. L., M. A. Nees, et al. (2001). Testing the effectiveness of sonified graphs for education: A programmatic research project. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2001), Espoo, Finland, Helsinki University of Technology.
Dobbs, J. (1991). Sound Graphs for Blind People, University of York, Department of Computer Science, Final year project report.
Edwards, A. D. N., H. McCartney and F. Fogarolo (2006). Lambda: A multimodal approach to making mathematics accessible to blind students Proceedings of Assets 2006, Portland, Oregon, ACM, pp.48-54.
Edwards, A. D. N. and Stevens, R. D. (1993). Mathematical representations: Graphs, curves and formulas. in D. Burger and J.-C. Sperandio (ed.) Non-Visual Human-Computer Interactions: Prospects for the visually handicapped. Paris: John Libbey Eurotext. pp. 181-194.
Mansur, D. L., M. Blattner, et al. (1985). Sound-graphs: a numerical data analysis method for the blind. Journal of Medical Systems, 9: pp.163-174.
It seems incontrovertible that an individual's attitude to (information) technology will be shaped by their background: their culture and their age. In designing technology it would be desirable to take account of such cultural factors. Yet it is evident that culture is hard to characterize and age is more than just a number. Fort instance, Hofstede has attempted to reduce culture to numbers on a set of cultural dimensions (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005), but this has been largely discredited (e.g. Oshlyansky et al., 2006) and Laslett (1991) shows that age is not a single number.
It seems likely that attitudes to technology are shaped by the technology that was prevalent in our formative years (in our 20s?). For instance, if the prevailing technology was mechanical, people may expect to be able to maintain and repair their own devices. If it was a time when (some) technology was expensive to use, then they might be wary of using it. And so on.
The objective of this project would be to devise a questionnaire on this basis that would explore the respondent's experience with technology in the past and then to assess their current attitude to information technology - and see if there are any correlations. Ideally this would be carried out with people of different ages and different countries of origin, in order to detect any differences.
The project would require some initial research, piloting questionnaire design (Cairns & Cox, 2008), and then dissemination and collection of as much data as possible. The questionnaire should be paper-based, since a web-based one would bias the sample.
Hofstede, G & Hofstede, G. J. 2005. Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Laslett, P. (1991). A Fresh Map of Life : The Emergence of the Third Age, Harvard University Press.
Oshlyansky, L., Cairns, P. and Thimbleby, H. (2006). A cautionary tale: Hofstede’s VSM revisited. Proceedings of British Human Computer Interaction Conference 2006. London, September 11 - 15 2006.
Wisebusiness is a local (Stockton-upon-Derwent) SME, run by two York graduates (MSc IP). One of their products is a content management system (CMS) called Juice, which is itself a webapp. It has rich functionality, but they have adopted a ‘training wheels’ approach whereby not all the functionality is visible to all the users. It is intended that users with minimal computer competence (familiarity with using the web and using applications such as Word) can maintain their own web content.
Their experience and feedback on usability is very positive. Clients can start using the tool with 10-30 minutes of training and give very positive feedback about usability. One important market is designers; they can be a route to a large number of users. In other words, instead of Wisebusiness having to deal with each individual client, if a designer will adopt the system, they can use it with their whole set of clients. Therefore, feedback that has recently been received from a designer may be particularly critical. He suggested that the look-and-feel of the software is not as good as it might be. Specifically, he thought parts of it need to be ‘more Web 2.0’. This may be an elusive quality, but it would seem to relate to the surface presentation of the interface.
The student would carry out a small-scale Collaborative Heuristic Evaluation (CHE, Petrie & Buykx, 2010) study of Juice to investigate the interface. Group Expert Walkthrough is a new technique that being developed at York, based on the established techniques of Cognitive Walkthroughs (John et al, 1995) and Heuristic Evaluation (Nielsen, 1994).
The student would carry out a CHE with a small number (2 or 3) of designers (identified by Wisebusiness). The participants would walk through the stages of designing a site using Juice, with the student taking notes. The student would then review the design based on the notes, applying usability and design heuristics at each stage. The objective would be to understand what it is about the look and feel of the current Juice interface which gives the wrong impression to designers and hence to come up with some design recommendations for Wisebusiness. A report to the company would be a required deliverable and would form an appendix of the project report.
John, R., F. Marita, and R. David, Usability evaluation with the cognitive walkthrough, in Conference companion on Human factors in computing systems. 1995, ACM: Denver, Colorado, United States.
Nielsen, J. Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics. in Celebrating Interdependence: Proceedings of Chi’94. 1994. Boston: ACM Press.
Route-finding between different locations is a difficult task for a blind person. Negotiating terrain is less of a problem, using a white cane or dog, but how does the person decide which way they should be going, particularly in a new location?
Tactile maps can provide some help (Dodds, 1989; Ungar et al, 2006), but they are limited in the information they provide and in people’s ability to decipher them. An alternative is to make the tactile map more interactive, by integrating it with a touch pad, such that additional auditory information can be provided when the user presses a particular part of the pad.
The question is what kind of information should be provided and in what form? The objective of this project would be to investigate these questions.
The outline of the project is:
Tactile maps of the main university campus already exist and these might form the basis of the study. These have already been tested as non-interactive tactile maps, leaving this study to concentrate on the interactive components.
The objective will be to help the user plan a route in advance, in such a way that they have a good chance of being able to remember it and follow it (Millar, 1994).
Dodds, A.G., (1989) Tactile maps: A psychologist’s perspective. Cartographic Journal, 26(June): p. 3-6.
Ungar, S., M. Blades, and C. Spencer, (2006) Talking TMAP: Automated generation of audio-tactile maps using Smith-Kettlewell's TMAP software. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 24: pp. 93-100.
Brewster, S. and R. Murray-Smith, (2000) Haptic Human-Computer Interaction: Proceedings of the First International Workshop. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science.
Millar, S., (1994) Understanding and Representing Space: Theory and Evidence from Studies with Blind and Sighted Children. Oxford Science Publications. , Oxford: Oxford University Press. 313.
Suitable as a Computer Science project.
Suitable as an MEng fourth-year project.
Suitable as an MMath fourth-year project.
Suitable for MSc (HCIT) students - usually involves HCI / evaluation work.
Suitable for MSc (IT) students.
Suitable for MSc Computation students.
Suitable for students on the MSc in Safety-Critical Software Engineering programme.
Suitable for MSc (SIIT) students
Alistair Edwards (email: alistair)
4 March 2011