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May 2009 Program Co-Chair LoCA, Tokyo Japan


Last week on May 7-8 I attended LOCA 2009 in Tokyo as one of the Program Co-Chairs for the 4th International Symposium on Location and Context Awareness. We started the symposium with a very engaging keynote from Dr.Shionozaki of Koozyt. He spoke about moving from PlaceEngine to Location Amplifier i.e. their experience with rolling out commercial Location Based Services. This was a very relevant keynote as LBS are now going main stream in certain countries and ramping up in many others. They provide exemplars and cautionary tales for those looking to explore, develop and commercialize location and context aware systems.

During LoCA presentations were of a very high quality and the papers have made some very impressive contributions to both location and context awareness. Our proceedings were published, more or less, in the Lecture Notes series in Computer Science in their Subseries: Information Systems and Applications, incl. Internet/Web, and HCI , Vol. 5561. LOCA 2009 has published new and significant research on systems, services, and applications to detect, interpret and use location and other contextual information. With context, we can expect computers to deliver information, services, and entertainment in a way that maximises convenience and minimises intrusion. Developing this awareness involves research in sensing, systems, machine learning, human computer interaction and design.

Prior to the conference the International Program Committee and Chairs selected the best paper from the submitted and reviewed papers. The award for the best paper was awarded to Sasank Reddy (University of California Los Angeles, US); Katie Shilton (University of California Los Angeles, US); Jeff Burke (University of California Los Angeles, US); Deborah Estrin (University of California at Los Angeles, US); Mark Hansen (University of California, Los Angeles, US); Mani Srivastava (University of California, Los Angeles, US) for their paper, “Using Context Annotated Mobility Profiles to Recruit Data Collectors in Participatory Sensing”.

Three papers were nominated for the best paper award:

  • Using Context Annotated Mobility Profiles to Recruit Data Collectors in Participatory Sensing
  • Multi Activity Recognition based on Bodymodel-Derived Primitives
  • Where Will They Turn: Predicting Turn Proportions At Intersections


During the course of the symposium John Krumm from Microsoft Research Seattle was awarded the best presentation award for his presentation on his paper “Where Will They Turn: Predicting Turn Proportions At Intersections”.

Thanks to my co-chair Tanzeem Choudhury from Dartmouth College, our local chair Koji Suginuma from Sony Corporation who did an amazing job with local organisation and to our general chair Thomas Strang from DLR.

April 2009 – CFP 1st International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications


I am a member of the Program Committee for the 1st International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications. This will be a interesting and exciting event given the rise of new forms of human computer interaction (such as Surface User Interfaces) and new display technologies suitable for in-car and inter-car application.

CFP:

***** AutomotiveUI’09 http://auto-ui.org *****
***** Conference: Mon/Tue 21-22 Sep 2009 *****
***** Submission Deadline: 02 June 2009 *****

*** The conference is in-cooperation with ***
*** ACM SIGCHI and the proceedings will be ***
*** included in the ACM digital library ***

Topics
—
* new concepts for driving interfaces
* multi-modal car user interfaces
* methods and tools for automotive user interface research
* approaches for the evaluation of novel car user interfaces
* user interface issues for assistive functionality
* novel multimedia interfaces and in-car entertainment
* text input and output while driving
* speech interfaces for in-car use
* user interfaces for information access while driving
* user interfaces for navigation systems
* user interface frameworks and toolkits for vehicles
* development tools and methods for car user interfaces
* biometrics and physiological sensors as a user interface component
* detection and estimation of user intentions
* detecting user distraction and driver state
* new display, visualization and interaction techniques for car UIs
* novel interactive car applications
* using sensors and context for interactive experiences in the car
* applications and user interfaces for inter-vehicle communication
* in-car gaming
* interactive applications for drivers and passengers

Theme
—
Advances in technology have transformed cars into
complex interactive systems. Drivers interact with
a variety of controls and applications to operate
a vehicle. Besides mastering the primary driving
task drivers make use of entertainment, information
and communication systems in the car. The technical
basis in modern cars includes means for communication,
sensing and media provision. With these novel
technologies many opportunities arise for creating
attractive in-car user interfaces. Nevertheless the
challenge of creating such interfaces in a compelling
and safe to use manner has grown ever greater.
Especially in the automotive context users expect
interfaces that are intuitive and straightforward to
use, without the need to read a manual. The overall
experience in driving a car is more and more
influenced by the man-machine interface, and hence
creating attractive user interfaces is of great
importance for a successful product.

Traditional means for user interface development as
known from desktop computing are often not suitable,
as many other conditions have an influence on the
design space for automotive user interfaces. In
comparison to many other domains, trial and error
while the product is already in the market is not
acceptable as the cost of failure may be fatal.

User interface design in the automotive domain is
relevant across many areas ranging from primary
driving control, to assisted functions, to
navigation, information services, entertainment
and games.

Submission
—
Authors are invited to submit papers that are
2, 4 or 8 pages long, formatted to follow the two
column ACM SIGCHI format. We are happy to consider
a variety of styles for inclusion in the proceedings,
such as academic papers, design sketches,
interaction concepts, and industrial case studies.
The papers will be selected using a peer-review process.
All accepted submissions will be included in the
conference proceedings, which will be available
through the ACM Digital Library.

Conference Chairs
—
Albrecht Schmidt, University of Duisburg-Essen
Anind Dey, Carnegie Mellon University

Program Chairs
—
Thomas Seder, GM
Oskar Juhlin, Interactive Institute & Stockholm University

April 2009 – Aware Home – Aware Care

Last week I presented on our CAPSIL project during a workshop on Opportunities in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) and Geron-technology. The focus of this 2nd Workshop was on the Users Perspective and how Ireland can build a competitive advantage in the emerging AAL market.

Speaking during the session on “Emerging European Trends for Inclusive AAL Solutions” the attendees were able to hear from three of the European Coordinated Actions in this space on their “Road Mapping” activities and suggested frameworks for AAL Development.

For more details visit the workshop website:
“AWARE HOMES | AWARE CARE
Opportunities in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) and Geron-technologyBuilding Competitive Advantage in the Emerging AAL Market
2nd Workshop – The Users Perspective
Date | Tuesday 7th April 2009
Time | 8.30 – 5.00pm
Venue | Nursing Building, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Dundalk, Co Louth

Europe’s ageing population is a challenge for our job market and its social and health systems. But it is also an economic and social opportunity. By 2020, 25% of the EU’s population will be over 65. Spending on pensions, heslth and long-term care is expected to increase by a factor of three by 2050. However, older Europeans are also important consumers with a combined wealth of over €3,000 billion. ”

April 2009 – P2P (papers and conferences)

New Book Chapter and New Paper

Daniel Cutting first got me interested in P2P computing with implicit group messaging while in Australia. We recently published a new book chapter together entitled Serendipity reloaded: fair loading in event-based messaging in the Handbook of Research on Advanced Distributed Event-Based Systems, Publish/Subscribe and Message Filtering Technologies together [5].

My new graduate student Neil Cowzer in UCD Ireland continues this research in new and interesting ways. His current focus is on addressing the needs of location based services across a P2P network. This is an area of cross over research for me between P2P and location and context awareness [4].

A Peer to Peer system consists of a number (typically very large) of networked computers (peers) which collectively perform an operation where each peer typically has equivalent capabilities and responsibilities. Given the proliferation of peer-to-peer file sharing systems, starting with Napster and more recently the BitTorrent protocol the term has become synonymous with just this activity.

However, the concept of peer to peer computing goes far beyond mundane file exchange. It is the subject of global research and development. These efforts are exploring the use of P2P systems for intensive tasks, globally scalable services and novel applications, that would typically be supported by central servers only. Examples of such applications include Joost (TV), Chinook, PAST, IGM (messaging), Skype (telephone) and SETI@home(research).

I wanted to pass on my congratulations to Neil Cowzer on having his first paper accepted at the 5th International Workshop on Collaborative Peer-to-Peer Systems (COPS 2009) for his paper on GeoIGM: a Location-Aware IGM Platform. In recent years, peer-to-peer systems have gained traction in a number of important areas including; file-sharing, VoIP and scientific research vehicles such as the Grid. In this paper we argue that this merely scratches the surface of the potential of peer-to-peer systems. We propose a novel peer-to-peer system, GeoIGM, well suited to the highly collaborative style of tagging and development of context-aware services, particularly with location[4]. With the provision of two fundamental operations; geographically-scoped multicasting and queries, GeoIGM eases the development of next-generation location-aware systems[1].

I also wanted to note the upcoming deadline in April for the Ninth International Conference on Peer-to-Peer Systems from the 8 – 11 September 2009 to be held in Seattle, Washington, USA [2]. It’s an excellent conference series with a range of research presented, from the highly theoretical in systems demonstrated though simulation alone to clearly applied, real-world results. I’m on the PC again this year and I look forward to an exciting range of papers to review. I’d also like to mention the deadline of next month for AP2PS the First International Conference on Advances in Peer-to-Peer Systems to be held on 11-16 October 2009, in Sliema, Malta [3].

The range of small focused workshops along with leading international conferences demonstrates the strength of research interest and activity in this area beyond the mundane applications noted before.

  1. Cowzer N. and Quigley A., “GeoIGM: a Location-Aware IGM Platform“, 5th International Workshop on Collaborative Peer-to-Peer Systems (COPS 2009)
  2. P2P 2009 the 9th International Conference on Peer-to-Peer Systems from the 8 – 11 September 2009, in Seattle, USA
  3. AP2PS the First International Conference on Advances in Peer-to-Peer Systems, 11-16 October 2009, in Sliema, Malta
  4. Choudhury, T.; Quigley, A.; Strang, Th.; Suginuma, K. (Eds.), Location and Context Awareness, 4th International Symposium, LoCA 2009 Tokyo, Japan, May 7-8, ISBN: 978-3-642-01720-9, LNCS Vol. 5561
  5. Cutting A and Quigley A, Serendipity reloaded: fair loading in event-based messaging, Handbook of Research on Advanced Distributed Event-Based Systems, Publish/Subscribe and Message Filtering Technologies, IGI Global 2009

April 2009 – Proceedings of LoCA 2009

New Edited Proceedings
The Proceedings of LoCA 2009 are now online

Location and Context Awareness
4th International Symposium, LoCA 2009 Tokyo, Japan, May 7-8, 2009 Proceedings
Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Subseries: Information Systems and Applications, incl. Internet/Web, and HCI , Vol. 5561
Choudhury, T.; Quigley, A.; Strang, Th.; Suginuma, K. (Eds.)
2009, VIII, 283 p., ISBN: 978-3-642-01720-9
[ Springer-Verlag Site ]

April 2009 – Face to face collaborative interfaces

New Book Chapter

Myself and one of my Masters students Florian Bodea from last year had a chapter on our research on Face to face collaborative interfaces published recently in the book on Human-Centric Interfaces for Ambient Intelligence by Elsevier [1]. This is edited by Hamid Aghajan, Stanford University, USA, Juan Carlos Augusto, University of Ulster, UK and Ramon Delgado, University of Granada, Spain.

Their description of the book states:
To create truly effective human-centric ambient intelligence systems both engineering and computing methods are needed. This is the first book to bridge data processing and intelligent reasoning methods for the creation of human-centered ambient intelligence systems. Interdisciplinary in nature, the book covers topics such as multi-modal interfaces, human-computer interaction, smart environments and pervasive computing, addressing principles, paradigms, methods and applications.

This book will be an ideal reference for university researchers, R&D engineers, computer engineers, and graduate students working in signal, speech and video processing, multi-modal interfaces, human-computer interaction and applications of ambient intelligence.

The Abstract of our chapter:

The presentation of information on large displays and their use to support collaboration in face to face activities has long been commonplace. Computationally enhanced displays relying on the form-factor of whiteboards, surfaces, tables, benches and desks now afford forms of face to face computer supported interaction and collaboration not possible with classical desktop or mobile computing. This chapter provides an introduction to the research and developments of multitouch input technologies which can be used to realise large interactive tabletop or “surface user interfaces”. Such hardware systems along with supporting software allow for applications which can be controlled through direct touch or multi-touch. Further, a review of gestural interactions and design guidelines for surface user interface design for collaboration are provided.

Key words: Tabletop, HCI, Surface User Interface, Gestural Interface, Design Guidelines

  1. Quigley A and Bodea F., Face to face collaborative interfaces, Book Chapter in Human Centric Interfaces for Ambient Intelligence, Elsevier 2009

April 2009 – Four invited Pervasive 2010 Workshops

[ Download PDF ] [ Visit Workshop Website ]


Pervasive 2010, the 8th International Conference on Pervasive Computing will be held in Helsinki, Finland, 17-20 May.

As workshop chairs for 2010 we have decided the program will be different than in past years as invited projects, invited topics and a call for workshops will all form part of the 2010 program:

  • A number of leading and relevant large pan-European FP7 projects have been invited to host a targeted workshop during Pervasive 2010
  • Leading research groups have been targeted to develop workshops in areas that have been underrepresented in past Pervasive programs
  • A two-phased call for workshop proposals will be made across the research community.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list for this call, please email:
pervasive2010-workshops-list@cs.helsinki.fi

At this stage four targeted groups will be developing workshop programs for 2010. These workshops represent an opportunity for the Pervasive community to reach into new yet related areas while also connecting into large EU funded Pervasive projects.
Up-to-date information about the Pervasive workshops is available at http://www.pervasive2010.org

Workshop Co-Chairs

  • Aaron Quigley, University College Dublin, Ireland
  • Petteri Nurmi, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT, Finland

Invited Workshops

Energy Awareness and Conservation through Pervasive Applications

Energy conservation is a growing area of interest for pervasive computing. Recently the problem of conserving energy through involvement of consumers has become topical. The multidisciplinary challenges for pervasive applications are numerous, including pervasive sensing of energy consumption, energy efficient infrastructures for sensing energy and users, and designing engaging applications that do not disrupt but support everyday activities.

This workshop follows a number of previous workshops on sustainability as a general theme at Ubicomp and Pervasive conferences. This is the first workshop focused on energy awareness and conservation that brings together research excellence from Far East (Japan) and Europe.
Organizers

  • Adj. Prof. Giulio Jacucci, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT, Finland
  • Prof. Tatsuo Nakajima, Waseda University, Japan
  • Prof. Marko Turpeinen, KTH, Sweden
  • Prof. Luciano Gamberini, University of Padova, Italy
  • Prof. Anna Spagnolli, University of Padova, Italy

Multimodal Location Based Techniques for Extreme Navigation

Location-based data and services for geographical and navigational information (such as electronic maps and GPS directions) are usually presented using visual displays. With the increasing complexity of information, and the variety of contexts of use, it becomes important to consider how other non-visual sensory channels, such as audition and touch, can be used to communicate necessary and timely information to users. Activities such as running, rock-climbing and cycling, are all examples of activities where navigational and geographical information may be needed, but where the visual modality is unsuitable. Additionally, there are a number of user groups such as visually impaired people and the emergency services, who also require non-visual access to geo-data. This workshop will provide a forum for sharing research
ideas and findings about new interaction and perceptualization metaphors, novel application contexts, multimodal and context-aware technologies for mobility – thereby creating a solid foundation for further exploration of pervasive extreme navigation.

Organizers

  • Assoc. Prof. Charlotte Magnusson, Lund University, Sweden
  • David McGookin, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • Margarita Anastassova, CEA, LIST, France
  • Wilko Heuten, OFFIS, Germany
  • Arantxa Rentería, Robotiker-Tecnalia, Spain
  • Prof. Susanne Boll, University of Oldenburg, Germany

Pervasive Personalisation

Personalisation is intrinsic to many of the core goals of pervasive computing. The workshop will address the broad range of issues around pervasive personalisation that is based on an explicit user model. One set of key areas concerns the ways that pervasive computing can inform the content of such a model which may be used in the long term for a range of personalised applications. Another set of important topics concern the ways that the model is used for personalisation within a particular application. Common to both of these are the issues of privacy and security of the user model.

Organizers

  • Prof. Judy Kay, University of Sydney, Australia
  • Assoc. Prof. Bob Kummerfeld, University of Sydney, Australia

Ubiquitous Virtual Reality

This workshop on Ubiquitous Virtual Reality aims to bring together researchers working in both pervasive computing and mixed reality to explore the convergence on the two domains. Emerging new computing paradigms accelerate the convergence among different technologies and thus make the border between the real and virtual worlds indistinguishable. In addition, mobile (or handheld) devices with integrated sensors have been established as an important platform for both Pervasive Computing and Augmented Reality that have become part of our daily lives. The goals of the workshop are to: (1) better understand the concept of “mobile AR life in dual spaces” (2) identify research issues that are unique to “mobile AR life in dual spaces” (3) aid those developing possible new applications by sharing ideas and designs.

Organizers:

  • Prof. Mark Billinghurst, HITLabNZ, New Zealand
  • Prof. Woontack Woo, GIST, Republic of Korea

Mar 2009 Holiday! What holiday?

March 15 – 21st was a week of CAPSIL events in the USA which I’ve blogged about previously. The week after was intended as a family holiday week. However due to various deadlines and upcoming events I had to slot in some work tasks along the way. Looking back at what I did this week made me realise I accomplished more “work” tasks during my holidays than most people do in a good work week. Normally I try to disconnect but I think this blend of holiday activity and work (during travel times) worked out quite well. Sweden is a big place so there were lots of opportunities while travelling from A to B.

Ice Hotel

The first part of the week was spent in Kiruna mainly at the Ice Hotel. We got to go hiking, dog sledding, sleeping in our Ice Room and drinking in the Ice Bar along with other activities. Some of these pics are below.

FP7

During the week I worked on the final versions of my contributions to an EU FP7 grant submission. Along with colleagues in 8 European countries we are submitting a request for a new support action. Some late evenings were required and work on trains and flights but the new workpackages look very strong.

COST action

In parallel to the FP7 submission I also submitted a pre-proposal to the COST framework. Following a number of past events and special journal issues a set of academics around Europe and the world came to the realise we need the support a COST action can offer to help develop the field of multi-device surface user interfaces. A Surface User Interface is a class of user interface that relies on a self illuminated (e.g. LCD, PDA or iPhone) or projected horizontal, vertical or spherical interactive surface (e.g. a touch-screen or video wall) tied with the control of computation in the same physical surface. New applications with interfaces that transcend one device onto a class of other devices (i.e. multi-device surface user interfaces) are now emerging. When one considers applications that support multi-device, multi-touch or multi-hand (e.g. an iPhone working with a Microsoft Surface or a PDA working with a public touch-screen) then the underlying interface assumptions break down. There are real problems in terms of knowledge of suitable design, seamless operation, coupling, gesture interaction, middleware, interaction design, usability study and evaluation. Sharing and documenting knowledge for all around these problems is the central goal of our very timely proposal. Take for example Ann Morrison in HITT who has been involved in the FP6 Integrated project on Interaction and Presence in Urban Environments called IPCity. Last year she presented some of their group work at PPD08 in Naples and with a support like this COST action we can have student and researcher exchange to work with their very novel systems and setup in Helsinki. This is but one example of the many projects ongoing in this space.

Spring Summit Umeå Institute of Design

Later in the week, thanks to a tweet from an Interaction Designer I hired for TRIL on the Umeå Institute of Design I discovered they were having a conference called “Sensing And Sensuality” the day I was in town. This spring summit 2009 was held on Friday March 27, 2009 at 10:00 and was hosted by the Umeå Institute of Design & Tellart. Sadly I couldn’t attend the entire day but I got to hear some very interesting presentations from speakers including, Mikael Wiberg on “Interaction & Textures”, Matt Cottam from Tellart & Rhode Island School of Design and Lennart Andersson on “Industrial Design meets Interaction Design”. There were many pragmatic design solutions presented along with a number of artistic endeavours. Having just come from the Ice Hotel in Kiruna I wasn’t convinced by Mikael Wiberg’s talk on their work with the Ice Bar in Copenhagen “Purity with a twist”. The idea is interesting but blending low-res led displays with the amazing ice cut from the Torne river struck me as Neanderthal Man making “art” on cave walls with stone. It’s art but this attempt to blend the digital and the physical is sadly misguided. There was also too much focus on the invisibility of pervasive systems. As a community I think we have come to realise we need “invisibility in action” not literal invisibility to progress our user interfaces. Other talks on interaction design and industrial design struck a better cord with me.

Research Assistant

[ Academic Jobs EU advert ]

My advert for a new research assistant also required my attention during this week and went live towards the end of the week.
I am looking for a Research Assistant for a 20 month period to work on ‘Tabletop, Mobile and Interactive Surfaces”. This is a funded research project and based in UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics working with me based in the Complex and Adaptive Systems Laboratory.
This project forms the first part of a phased program of research exploring the role of tabletop computing along with coupled public and private displays in rehabilitation, gaming and computer supported corporative work. The research assistant is expected to explore questions posed by the project lead and other team members. A large component of this post will be the development of research prototypes, using off the shelf development toolkits along with contributing to our open source developments in this area. Strong programming skills along with the ability to work with software and hardware co-design. The research assistant is further expected to support and maintain the tabletop physical hardware systems in place within the CASL along with developing new forms of system is called upon in the course of this research.

LoCA 2009

Over the past two weeks I’ve been working with Springer Verlag on getting the final copy correct for the proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Location and Context Awareness (LoCA) which will be held on May 7–8, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. Location and context awareness are fundaments to next-generation mobile and pervasive computing systems. Pervasive computing is a model of computing in which computation is everywhere and computer functions are integrated into everything. The ultimate aim is to make information, applications and services available anywhere and at anytime in the human environment in a fluid manner appropriate to our current context. In addition to working on the final copy of the proceedings I announced our keynote Dr. Atsushi Shionozak’s title and abstract on our website. The title of his keynote will be From PlaceEngine to Location Amplifier: Rolling Out Commercial Location Based Services.

Overall


So the lesson is I need to leave my laptop at home if I want to relax I suppose? However, given these deadlines and the fact I’m involved in collaborative research efforts this week required me online. The other way to look at this is I need to take more holidays to boost my productivity!

Mar 2009 New Pervasive and Autonomic Research Papers

Congrats to my postgraduate student Ross Shannon and postdoctoral colleague Emil Vassev on their recent success with 3 new papers from our group.

Ross is coming towards the end of his doctoral studies. His emerging interest in pervasive advertising [ 1,2 ] stems from his desire to explore novel methods in the commercialisation of his research after his PhD.

In this regard Ross, along with some of his peers, are taking part in a Campus Company Development Programme this year around “pervasive advertising”. The NovaUCD Campus Company Development Programme (CCDP) is a part-time enterprise support initiative designed to suit the timetable of busy researchers and academics. It comprises a mix of practical training and consultancy support including 12 half-day workshops, one-to-one advice and consultancy meetings, and a series of networking events.

Ross will already be in Japan along with myself and others from the SRG in UCD as we have a full paper in the main conference [ 5 ]. Ross is already an accomplished entrepreneur with some of his web endeavours having thousands of visitors per week [ 3 ].

Emil joined us here in UCD late last year and is already making his presence felt with numerous new collaborations and many research papers submitted. Emil will be going to the NASA Ames Conference Center, Moffett Field, California, USA to present [ 4 ] our paper related to his research in Autonomic Computing with Lero.

Mar 2009 Hiring a Surface Computing research assistant

(updated March 13th 2009)

Research Assistant – Human Computer Interfaces
Post Duration 20 Months

A Research Assistant is sought for a 20 month period to work on ‘Tabletop, Mobile and Interactive Surfaces”, a funded research project and based in UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics with Dr. Aaron Quigley based in the Complex and Adaptive Systems Laboratory. NOTE: The formal advertisement for this will go online in the coming weeks so I will update this post with links to the UCD advertisement and application process then.

This project forms the first part of a phased program of research exploring the role of tabletop computing along with coupled public and private displays in rehabilitation, gaming and computer supported corporative work. The research assistant is expected to explore questions posed by the project lead and other team members. A large component of this post will be the development of research prototypes, using off the shelf development toolkits along with contributing to our open source developments in this area. Strong programming skills along with the ability to work with software and hardware co-design. The research assistant is further expected to support and maintain the tabletop physical hardware systems in place within the CASL along with developing new forms of system as called upon in the course of this research.

Recent developments have seen the wide spread proliferation of both large shared displays and small display technologies. In parallel we have seen the emergence of new classes of device which support both touch or multi touch interaction. Examples of small touch driven devices include PDAs, Tablets and iPhones and examples of large interactive surfaces (mutli-touch driven displays) include the Diamondtouch and Microsoft Surface Computing. Interactive surfaces offer great potential for face-to-face work and social interaction and provide natural ways to directly manipulate virtual objects whereas small devices afford the individual a personal workspace or “scratch space” to formulate ideas before bringing them to a wider audience. Advanced visual interfaces can be built around a combination of both private and public touch driven displays. Such computer mediated multi-device interaction between local touch-driven displays and shared public ones presents a number of novel and challenging research problems.

The Research Assistant will work under the direction of the Project Leader, Dr Aaron Quigley. Candidates for the position must have an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or Computer Engineering. Demonstrated experience with hardware or image or video processing is a plus. The post would suit an exceptional recent graduate or a graduate with 1-3 years development experience. Given the highly specialised nature of this research, candidates are not expected to have development experience with tabletop or surface computing, however demonstrated experience with the development of novel or exceptional user interfaces is a plus.

Candidates should have very good research skills, an ability to work independently to a tight schedule, and experience in writing and editing reports. The appointment may begin on the 1st of June 2009. The project will be managed by Dr. Aaron Quigley and collaborations with CLARITY researchers may form part of this project going forward. The annual salary for this post is €26,000 – €29,000 per annum.

Please note that although the job is based in Dublin there will be opportunities to travel for conferences and collaborative activities elsewhere (travel and accommodation provision will be made for this.)

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

  • Responsible for the development of demonstrator or proof of concept prototypes will tabletop systems.
  • Responsible for maintenance, support and development of the tabletop hardware systems in this project.
  • Responsible for developing high quality code (suitable for open source release), as well as stand-alone proof-of-concepts and prototypes on mobile platforms (eg. iPhone).
  • Responsible for developing multi-device (coupled) applications software and robust prototypes.
  • Writing standards-compliant APIs.
  • Work with other team members, including postgraduate, postdoctoral and researchers as directed by the project lead.

Selection Criteria
Mandatory

  • Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or Computer
    Engineering.
  • Strong programming skills.
  • Excellent communication skills.
  • Strong understanding of interfaces.
  • The ablity to adapt to changing priorities and to thrive in a fast-paced work environment.
  • Fluency in the English language.

Desirable

  • Experience with hardware or image or video processing.
  • Understanding of basics of Usability, Human Computer Interaction, and Design Guidelines.