Information im Kontext

Description

Teams of 3 to 5 students conduct small research projects in the field of personalized nomadic information services. Proposals for projects will be announced by the internship supervisors about one month before the kick-off meeting. The projects include

• Requirement analysis, Use-Cases and user-scenarios
• User-interface design
• Identification of personalization needs
• Implementation of adapting the system behavior
• Usability evaluation

Each group will have to elaborate scenarios and use-cases for their topic and provide a clear work plan including time schedule. After clarification, each group will specify the system, its components and behavior. The specification is the basis of the implementation phase. At the end of the development, each group will create an evaluation plan and conduct the evaluation of the running prototype.

At the end of the lab, each group will present the results of the project work accompanied by a demonstration of the application / system developed. A written report has to be provided by each group on their development.

Appointments and Locations

Regular Appointments:
Fr 10:00 - 12:00, Room C5-120, Fraunhofer FIT, Sankt Augustin
Start of the next internship: April 16, 2010

Topic 1: Surface Computing on a Table

Touch interface has been used for various devices from mobile devices to huge multi touch walls. This raise questions for desktop computing. Can a multi-touch table be used as effective as our desktop computer?
Since, Jeff Han introduced FTIR technology, building multi-touch table have been quite easy. Therefore, in this lab we would like you to build a prototype of a multi-touch table using a projector and FTIR / DIY technology and evaluate this table against conventional input devices such as mouse and keyboard for daily activities such as writing emails, web browsing or organizing pictures. (Min. team size: 3 Students).

Links:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Interactive-Multitouch-Display/
http://wiki.nuigroup.com/Hardware

Goal of the project

• Design and build a multi-touch table using FTIR / DIY technology.
• Evaluate how users interact with it when they perform daily work activities such as writing e-mail, and web browsing.
• Capture the advantages and disadvantages of a multi-touch interaction compare to our desktop computer.

Expected Outcome
A prototypical multi-touch table and elaborate the user evaluation of multi touch interaction for such activities.

Topic 2: Scotland Yard online

Scotland Yard is a classical tabletop game where a group of detectives chases Mr. X. Mr. X gets caught when he is at the same time at the same location as one of the detectives. Both can use a set of means of transportation and Mr. X has the limited ability to get invisible for a short time.

Make this game a multiplayer browser game, so that the participants can play the game while staying in different locations. Do not focus too much on what is technically possible. Let your users decide how the game should behave. Make sure that the game is funnier or more interesting to the user than the tabletop is.

Goal of the project

• Port the rules of the tabletop game to the browser. Make it self-consistent, robust and interesting. Keep the main rules of the tabletop and improve it with the abilities of a browser game.
• Make the users lead the application, involve them in planning, requirements analysis and evaluation as well as during the implementation phase.
• Check the possibilities APIs provide and find own solutions for the other requirements
• Options:
  • Use map APIs like Google Maps, Yahoo Maps or Bing Maps
  • Use for builing web application frameworks like Google Web Toolkit (preferred), Ruby etc.
    

    Expected outcome
    A prototypical implementation of a multiplayer browser game of the tabletop game Scotland Yard where the main game principles are enhanced by possibilities of an online game. The application is tested, documented and user evaluated.

Topic 3: Interactive Shop Windows

Nowadays, shop windows need to have something special in order to be recognized besides all the other shop windows. Besides blinking lights and changing interior, often large screens showing animations are used. A really new approach is making the shop windows interactive. Visitors could ask for more information about an exhibit or make the exhibit turn around on a platform.

Goal of the project

• Build an interactive shop window. If you want to focus rather on the interaction possibilities, you can simulate a shop windows with an interactive TV Screen or a projector image
•  Show different meaningful interaction possibilities
• Make it resistant against vandalism
• Evaluate if there is a benefit for shop owners compared to common shop windows

Expected outcome
A There are two possible focuses for that project. Either, the focus is on building the physical window itself. Some possible interactions are also prototypically demonstrated. Or, the focus is on the interaction possibilities of an interactive shop window. In that case, the shop window is simulated on a large screen or a projector image. However, this mockup has to be set up for simulation, too. Several different interaction possibilities are demonstrated. In all cases, an initial survey reveals user requirements. The resulting system is evaluated and compared with common shop windows.

Topic 4: FIT Office Status System

In an office building environment, there are many cases why you cannot meet a colleague. He may already be at home in the afternoon or has not yet arrived in the morning. He can be on a meeting, in a telephone call or at lunch. In these cases it would be nice to know the status of the colleague, so that you know for how long he is expected to be unavailable and how important his absence is. This knowledge should be gained without interrupting the colleague by calling him on the mobile phone.

The necessary data could be edited manually by every colleague but it would be more comfortable if the system could sense some statuses automatically. Maybe it is possible to notice automatically that a person is doing a telephone call.

The status information could be made available on a public screen that it situated at the entrance of the office building. So, people could have a quick look on the public screen when they arrive in the morning and know the status of their colleagues. Due to privacy concerns this information should be encoded in some way. For example, every employee could have an own avatar on the public screen. The avatar is known by his colleagues but the public does not understand the associated status information

Goal of the project
The project addresses several questions:

• Make a survey which status information people want to know from their colleagues and which status information they are willing to give
• Build a system where employees can set their current status which can be seen by their colleague’s PCs. The setting of statuses should work as automatic as possible
• Make a display system for that information on a public screen hanging in the entrance of an office building. Make sure, that the information is encoded so that colleagues can easily understand it but on the other hand, privacy is preserved

Expected outcome
A prototypical implementation of a system where employees in an office building can set free/busy statuses which can be viewed from their colleague’s PCs. The free/busy status is gathered as automatic as possible. The free/busy information is also viewable on a public screen in an encoded way. The application is tested, documented and user evaluated.

Topic 5: Collaborative route planning with Google Wave

Planning a trip is a challenge for people who are living spread over a country. For example, an old circle of friends want to go on skiing vacation together. They live spread all over Germany and want to plan how many cars they need, which one of the friends is best scheduled to which car and who better takes the train. They need a tool where they can collaboratively plan the route which should be intuitively visualized.

Google Wave is Google’s upcoming approach to revolutionize current communication possibilities by combining mail, instant messaging, collaborative document editing and more in one system. Users get a platform that allows them to work in cooperation in a new and possibly more efficient way. As it is common in several Google services an open API is provided to develop Add-ons for Google Wave or for using Google Wave in own applications.

Goal of the project

• Gather requirements of users for a collaborative route planning tool
• Make yourself familiar with the possibilities of Google Wave
• Prototypically build an application in Google Wave or an own application
• Evaluate if it fulfills the user’s needs

Expected outcome
A prototypical implementation of a collaborative route planning software. The application can be an Add-on for Google Wave or it can be an own application. The application is tested, documented and user evaluated.